Since the first bombs dropped on Iran in late February, two of Trump’s most trusted Cabinet picks have been shown the door. The question now circulating in Washington is not whether more firings are coming. It is who.
Kristi Noem was dismissed on March 5, and less than a month later, Pam Bondi followed on April 1, removing two long-time loyalists in quick succession.
Former U.S. diplomat and University of Michigan-Dearborn lecturer Michael J. Montgomery has two names in mind: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Montgomery described the situation by saying, “If this goes bad as I suspect it will, Tulsi Gabbard will be next out the door because Donald Trump is much more prone to firing women than men, and Pete Hegseth could follow soon after, especially if the career military personnel do not implement each and every Trump order no matter how illegal or deranged.”
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His reasoning for both is the same. “Trump takes the blame for nothing himself and those two are the logical fall people in the event of poor intelligence or poor execution undermining his war on Iran.”
Retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer Travis Akers told The Daily Beast that Donald Trump is likely to look for someone to blame, saying he will not accept responsibility and warning that a firing is “definitely going to happen in the near future.”
Gabbard’s situation is the more urgent of the two. Trump has privately consulted Cabinet members on whether to replace her after she declined to criticize Joe Kent’s departure.
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Gabbard said it was not her job, or the intelligence community’s, to determine whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S., one of the key justifications cited by Trump for launching the war. When pressed on the issue, she stated: “It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. That is up to the president.”
Trump also reportedly told press secretary Karoline Leavitt she was “doing a terrible job,” blaming her for the administration’s “93% bad publicity.”
Hegseth has his own problems. His daily Pentagon briefings declaring historic military victories have drawn comparisons to the infamous Vietnam-era “five o’clock follies,” when briefers in Saigon presented rosy portrayals entirely at odds with reality on the ground. He declared a capital V victory on Wednesday while Iran was still firing missiles across the Gulf.
The White House insisted both Gabbard and Hegseth retain the president’s full confidence. In this administration, that phrase has a well-documented shelf life.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
