Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly blocked military aid flights to Ukraine within days after Donald Trump entered office without the administration knowing.
An order from the U.S. military told freight airlines at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a U.S. base in Qatar to halt 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weapons bound for Ukraine, according to Reuters.
That verbal order reportedly came from Hegseth’s office, according to U.S. Transportation Command records reviewed by Reuters, sparking mass confusion across Washington, D.C. and in Kyiv, underscoring what officials and critics have warned is a Pentagon in disarray and driven by haphazard decision-making .
The pause in aid was previously reported, but Hegseth’s apparent direct role in making the call to halt the flights was not. The flights resumed several days later after then-national security adviser Mike Waltz intervened, according to Reuters.
Hegseth’s decision reportedly followed an Oval Office meeting on January 30, though Trump did not explicitly direct Hegseth to freeze any aid. A formal order halting aid that was authorized under Joe Biden’s administration went into effect roughly one month later, on March 4.
But the White House told Reuters that Hegseth was following Trump’s directive, despite the apparent chaos and confusion among top national security officials who had no idea why the flights were grounded, and who ordered them.
“Negotiating an end to the Russia-Ukraine War has been a complex and fluid situation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters. “We are not going to detail every conversation among top administration officials throughout the process … The bottom line is the war is much closer to an end today than it was when President Trump took office.”
The pause in shipments also raised alarms in Ukraine, where officials had difficulties getting any answers from Trump administration officials through multiple channels, according to Reuters.
The administration is standing firm behind Hegseth following widespread calls for his resignation and reports suggesting that the White House was considering other candidates for the job.
Following a month of “total chaos” at the Pentagon, from mass firings to leaked Signal chats featuring top Trump administration officials discussing bombing campaigns in Yemen, “there are very likely more shoes to drop in short order,” according to John Ullyot, who resigned last month as a top Pentagon spokesperson.
The White House has denied reports suggesting that Hegseth could be replaced, but pressure from members of Congress and a firestorm of criticism have only accelerated since his appointment.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host and military veteran, has repeatedly blamed the press for any suggestion there’s disorder inside the Pentagon while casting allegations from his own top aides as the work of disgruntled former employees.
“What a big surprise that a bunch of… a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax [and] won’t give back their Pulitzers — they got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies,” Hegseth said from outside the White House on April 21.
“This is what the media does,” he said. “They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.”
