The Tucker Carlson Show
The Pentagon Didn’t Fire Dan Caldwell Over Leaks. They Fired Him for Opposing War With Iran.
21 Apr 2025
Dan Caldwell was one of the strongest voices at the Pentagon opposing war with Iran. Then he was falsely accused of leaking classified documents and fired. Paid partnerships with: Beam: Get 47% off for a limited time using the code TUCKER at https://ShopBeam.com/Tucker Hallow prayer app: Get 3 months free at https://Hallow.com/Tucker PureTalk: Go to https://PureTalk.com/Tucker to make the switch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Dan Caldwell is a Marine Corps veteran who wound up until three days ago advising the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on military policy. He was one of the strongest voices in the U.S. government in the Trump administration against the war with Iran. And his rationale was simple. It's not in America's interest and many Americans will die and billions will be spent.
on a war we don't need to fight. And as someone who fought in Iraq, he was able to take that case to the principals with some force. Then three days ago, he was fired from the Pentagon. but not for his views on Iran, no. Dan Caldwell was fired because, reporters are told off the record, he had leaked classified documents to the media. But what were these classified documents exactly?
Well, no one at the Pentagon could know the answer to that because Dan Caldwell's phone was never examined, nor was he given a polygraph. So actually, beneath the headlines was nothing other than a false accusation. Was Dan Caldwell fired because he opposed the push to war with Iran? You decide. Here's Dan Caldwell.
So there is an enormous amount of pressure on this administration to participate in military action against Iran. And the president's position has been, I think, really clear for a long time, which is we don't want Iran to get nuclear weapons. That's bad for everybody. Yes. He sincerely believes that. He's against proliferation. He's very concerned about nuclear weapons. in general, I think.
But we would prefer, strongly prefer a diplomatic solution. And he's being attacked up and down, including by a lot of people in the administration and private. And really, we're trying to steer him toward military action. So leaving aside all the, you know, internecine fights going on, just as a real life matter, What would happen if the U.S.
participated in a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites?
So I strongly believe that for diplomacy to work, there needs to be a credible military option.
Yes.
And the president needs that. The Pentagon, where I used to work, needs to provide that. That is their role in American foreign policy, is to provide that leverage to for diplomatic solutions to work. Now, that's how it's supposed to work. Does it often work that way? Unfortunately, the last 30 years have shown us that it really doesn't.
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