The Truth Behind Pete Hegseth’s Job Security Donald Trump has relayed to people that he is indeed frustrated with the mess consuming Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon, writes Gabriel Sherman. A senior White House official even told VF that the president recently ordered Hegseth to get his act together.
Trump’s defense secretary, who was, of course, at the center of Signalgate and a second alarming Signal chat alongside his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, has been “very paranoid,” according to sources close to him, and recently dismissed three of his closest advisers, whom he accused of being the source of leaks.
But, despite Trump’s ire, Hegseth’s job and makeup studio all seems safe for now, since the president has instituted an unofficial “no scalps” policy and would rather not fire Cabinet members who are the subjects of negative media reports. “The feeling inside the White House is ‘let’s not be reactionary,’” said a former campaign official who remains close to the West Wing.
Speaking of MAGA fury, Noah Shachtman takes a look at the losing streak of MAGA queen Miriam Adelson, the billionaire and far-right mega-donor who spent more than $100 million on getting Trump, whose approval rating has also tanked, elected. How losing? Adelson’s son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, engineered what was likely the worst trade in NBA history. Meanwhile, the Adelsons’ family company, Las Vegas Sands, halted its plans to build a casino in Nassau County, where Sands has already spent some $400 million on lawyers, lobbyists, architects, engineers, and image makers in a pursuit that’s taken more than a decade.
Plus, Issie Lapowsky explores the long arc of Trump and Jeff Bezos’s rocky relationship. “So much for #sendDonaldtospace,” she writes. “The president is doing just fine by Bezos here on Earth.”
—Meena Ganesan, senior editor |
