Trump Refuses to Answer When Asked If He Has ‘100% Confidence’ in Pete Hegseth: ‘It’s a Stupid Question’
President Donald Trump dodged the question when asked if he has “100% confidence” in embattled Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, calling it a “stupid question.”
Last month, a stunning article from Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, described how National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had accidentally added him in a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal that included the “principals committee,” top level national security agency officials in the Trump administration, as they discussed attack plans and messaging strategies related to striking the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Since then, more damaging reports have come out, some bringing mockery, like a story Hegseth had a makeup studio installed at the Pentagon, and some raising calls for his resignation or for Trump to fire him, like the latest round of stories about him engaging in additional Signal chats, installing the app on government computers, and “baffling purges” of top-level staff. Hegseth has defiantly denied wrongdoing and attacked the media and his critics.
ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran interviewed Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday to cover the president’s first 100 days of his second term, and asked about the “turmoil” at the Pentagon under Hegseth’s bumpy tenure:
TERRY MORAN: Alright. I want to ask one question about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. There’s a lot of turmoil — at the — at the Pentagon right now. There’s the Signal chat with his wife on it where he’s discussing that attack in Yemen. There’s another Signal chat — discussing the attack on Yemen.
There’s a reporter accidentally involved. You said the other day that you had a talk with the secretary. Did you take him to the woodshed?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I had a talk with him, and whatever I said, I probably wouldn’t be inclined to tell you. But, uh, we had a good talk. He’s a talented guy. He’s young. He’s smart, highly educated. And I think he’s gonna be a very good defense — hopefully a great defense secretary –but he’ll be a very good defense secretary —
MORAN: You have a hundred percent confidence in Pete Hegseth?
TRUMP: I don’t have — a hundred percent confidence in anything, okay? Anything. Do I have a hundred percent? It’s a stupid question. Look —
MORAN: It’s a pretty important position.
TRUMP: — I have — no, no, no. You don’t have a hundred percent. Only a liar would say, “I have a hundred percent confidence.” I don’t have a hundred percent confidence that we’re gonna finish this interview.
MORAN: We will.
TRUMP: Let’s go.
The interview did in fact continue, concluding with Trump telling Moran that “ABC is one of the worst,” Moran replying, “Okay, thank you for the opinion,” a final question in which Trump defended his actions and claimed once again that the 2020 election was “rigged” and now America was “coming back” and “respected again.”
“Mr. President, thank you,” said Moran.
“Thank you, Terry, very much,” said Trump.
Watch the video above, via ABC News.
