Jay Weber Show transcript 4-22-25
A few listeners emailed me yesterday- wondering what we are supposed to believe when it comes to Pete Hegseth: is trump really moving to fire and replace him? Or is it really fake news? Is Trump really standing behind him?
That’s the problem with today’s news media, isn’t it?
‘Welcome to my world’...in which it has become increasingly difficult to figure out what the ‘truth is’ on any given day-or moment. A ‘runaway’ news media and social media atmosphere was getting harder to navigate even before Donald Trump came onto the scene and/or before the country broke so harshly following the George Floyd riots...
But in the age of trump, it’s particularly difficult to know what the truth is. NPR was insisting yesterday it had a ‘source’ inside the White House that confirmed Trump, and his team were already working to find Hegseth’s replacement.
That news was met with a -very forceful-denial from Karoline Leavitt and the trump white house. No one knows what to believe.
The position that I have taken when the news relates to Donald Trump or his administration. Something he’s allegedly going to do. Something he allegedly said, etc.
What I have adopted as a strategy -in addition to simply using common sense to try to figure out how ‘real’ or how ‘likely’ this is-
Is-I’ve started to wait six hours. Twelve hours. 36 hours...however long it takes for either the ‘truth’ to develop and really show itself- or for the lie or smear that’s being told by the left-wing news reporters to be exposed and die out.
And when it comes to this latest Hegseth scandal, it has all the hallmarks of another fake news smear in an effort to destroy Hegseth, cause more trouble in the pentagon’s ‘deep state’, and cause more headaches for President Trump.
First-the ‘new’ accusations aren’t new. And second- Hegseth’s so-called ‘signal chat’ error didn’t have him revealing any classified information...and so...’what’s the scandal’?
And third-this conveniently comes on the heels of the defense department firing three career ‘deep state’ staffers following an investigation into pentagon leaks?
None of this passes the smell test, in terms of ‘is it a legitimate scandal’...and ‘is Pete Hegseth an incompetent clown who needs to be replaced’?
There are too many hints of ‘fake news’ and ‘ginned up scandal’ here for me-
And a final clue: how forcefully president trump and Karoline Leavitt came out to back Hegseth and say-categorically- the president supports him; this is just more game playing b.s. by the media.
President Trump sees these attacks on Hegseth as the exact same form of nastiness and smear attacks that he has had to endure for a decade.
White House insiders say: this looks- so like what Trump has endured at the hands of these very same media outlets- that the president ‘can identify it’....and ‘can empathize with Hegseth’...because he’s been through it.
Moreover- when the original ‘signal app’ scandal broke related to his national security advisor, Mike Walz, those same insiders said that trump-was- sort of angry at Walz- but that there was no way. Zero.
There was-no way- trump was going to cave to the media bullying and fire Walz. Any talk of that was a non-starter with trump...after some of his political aides went squishy and suggested it...because... Dammit. We are not going to give the activist news media what they want, and we are not going to give a political win to the democrats this way.
And this is another way that the trump white house -term two- has been different from any other republican president. Including ‘trump one’.
Donald trump-today-has learned the hard lessons of the last ten years, including dealing with an impossible and corrupt news media machine that’s only ever working as an agent of the democrat left-
And so-he’s not going to give into it. He’s not going to cave to their game. And so, I’d be shocked if-given his categorical and forceful support of Hegseth yesterday, if Hegseth was gone by the end of the week.
And- if I’m wrong about that- it will be because president trump investigated things and found out that Pete Hegseth-was- the problem and needed to go. But trump’s not going to let the bullying media due to his team members-the exact same thing they’ve done to him- and let them get away with it by ‘cutting his political liabilities because the leftist media managed to destroy this person’s reputation.’
Pete Hegseth, himself, was at this easter egg event...and told the cameras...this is the same old pattern.
Yes: if you are unaware last week. Three Hegseth staffers were put on leave following an investigation into earlier leaks- related to the first bogus ‘signal app’s scandal... And that’s got the dc swamp creatures infuriated.
And hey- I doubt that the pentagon and defense department are in a state of turmoil now, as the media reports have suggested-
Because the ‘careerists’ there are just as vulnerable to the same sorts of reactions to trump’s reform attempts as any other government employee would be.
Maybe Moreso-
After all-if you’ve spent your entire military career climbing to the rank of general...or to work yourself into a cushy and important pentagon gig....and now trump and Hegseth are looking to take it away from you...wouldn’t it be your natural reaction to be PO’d? And wouldn’t at least ‘some’ weasels.... start to do their ‘weasel thing’ to try to stop it?
Karoline Leavitt had this to say on Fox, yesterday morning:
I have zero doubt that that’s going on. And you know we aren’t going to get an honest accounting of it from the inside-the-swamp news media. Everyone on the east coast, in dc and NY, hates trump. Hates his people. And they is motivated to do everything they can to stop and ruin them.
They’ve all got themselves talked into believing that ‘stopping Trump’ is the ‘right’ and ‘patriotic’ and ‘democracy saving’ act? Correct?
And so-why wouldn’t’ we be seeing these sorts of personal and professional attacks on trump’s team members?
And boy-they really. Really...have it out for Pete Hegseth.
Some conservative DC outlets reported yesterday that this new Hegseth smear came from a guy who has been working for years to subvert trump’s agenda...even as he’s pretended to be a Trump supporter. Which, sadly, has been par-for-the-course when it comes to Trump and the people surrounding him.
This isn’t even a new scandal, or new information.
How many people hearing the left’s ‘twist’ on this story are even aware that the alleged ‘mistake’ that Hegseth made...was made months ago...before he had even been confirmed as defense secretary?
The Houthi strikes went off as planned. It was a very successful action. No news ever got out.
If it sounds like we’ve already covered this-and that the left has already smeared Hegseth with this-
It’s because they have! This isn’t even ‘new news’. It’s rehashed malarkey.
As a Pentagon spokesman said: another day, another old story- back from the dead.
He said-the Trump hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to the trump agenda.
Yep.
And if you look at ‘which cabinet members of Trump’s have been the most forceful and the most effective-Pete Hegseth is right there at the top of the list. The enlisted people love him. The members of this military love trump-and cannot wait to drop the DEI and the Obama and Biden era wokeisms-and get back to being a cohesive fighting force that is combat-ready.
Hegseth has taken his task seriously-to get us there- and all the soft pentagon lifers and swamp-dwellers are in a rage as they see decades and decades of their leftist ‘deep state’ work being unraveled. That is-more logically-what’s going on here.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here> Looks like the left and legacy media are back to the old playbook.