Roughly a week after Donald Trump started his second term as president, the U.S. military issued an order to three freight airlines operating out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a U.S. base in Qatar: Stop 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weaponry and bound for Ukraine.
Top national security officials — in the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department — couldn't provide answers. Within one week, flights were back in the air.
The verbal order originated from the office of Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, according to TRANSCOM records reviewed by Reuters.
The cancelations came after Trump wrapped up a January 30 Oval Office meeting about Ukraine that included Hegseth and other top national security officials, according to three sources familiar with the situation. During the meeting, the idea of stopping Ukraine aid came up, said two people with knowledge of the meeting, but the president issued no instruction to stop aid to Ukraine.
The president was unaware of Hegseth's order, as were other top national security officials in the meeting, according to two sources briefed on the private White House discussions and another with direct knowledge of the matter.
Asked to comment on this report, the White House told Reuters that Hegseth had followed a directive from Trump to pause aid to Ukraine, which it said was the administration's position at the time. It did not explain why, according to those who spoke to Reuters, top national security officials in the normal decision making process didn't know about the order or why it was so swiftly reversed.
The story of how flights were canceled, detailed by Reuters for the first time, points to an at-times haphazard policy-making process within the Trump administration and a command structure that is unclear even to its own ranking members.
The multiday pause of the flights, confirmed by five people with knowledge of it, also shows confusion in how the administration has created and implemented national security policy. At the Pentagon, the disarray is an open secret, with many current and former officials saying the department is plagued by internal disagreements on foreign policy, deep-seated grudges, and inexperienced staff.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
Hegseth MUST go. He is irresponsible and insubordinate.
Hegseth sucks at his job news at 11
Hegseth was 100% bought in to be the unpopular face of this administration and to take the heat. But with these many people leaking against him, he’s not going to be in there for long.
Hegseth is more concerned with his personal glory and ambition. All he wants is to be seen as “in charge”. These types of leaders in control of military strategy get people killed.