The Pentagon's dramatic divorce from D.C. orthodoxy
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon on June 26. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The gulf is widening between the Pentagon and the Washington defense orthodoxy — or what's left of it under Trump 2.0.
- Most recently, the Pentagon suspended participation in think tank events, a signal that outside experts consulted and courted by past White Houses are to be treated as suspect.
The big picture: This administration's pledge to upend the status quo, exemplified by the "Make America Lethal Again" mantra, has manifested in two forms:
- Axing projects and people seen as redundant or too old school, a la the U.S. Army Transformation Initiative.
- Disengaging from traditional public forums in favor of friendlier, niche networks, such as Steve Bannon's "War Room."
Driving the news: The decision to freeze out think tanks came just days after the Pentagon's abrupt withdrawal from the Aspen Security Forum, among the most exclusive events on the national security circuit.
- Those mandates are causing internal confusion, Politico reports, as people attempt to decipher the new rules and what applies to whom.
- "No more taxpayer-funded vacations to Aspen, CO!" press secretary Kingsley Wilson wrote on X on Monday. (And no participation via Zoom either, apparently.)
- Under Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, she continued, "our warfighters are getting back to what they do best: defending our nation and keeping America safe."
Context: Weeklong forums in faraway halls and hourlong events blocks from the White House are two-way streets.
- They give speakers, such as generals, undersecretaries and program executive officers, a platform to discuss recent exercises or proposals.
- They also give the audience, often comprising contractors, researchers and watchdogs, color and face time with officials who are otherwise hard to access.
What they're saying: "I think they're going to shoot themselves in the foot here when they reduce, in essence, the reach of their message," Price Floyd, a former head of public affairs at the Pentagon, told Axios.
- "For industry, they don't know what to do. They don't know how to pivot," he said. "They don't know where to be. What events do they take part in? What do they support?"
What we're hearing: The moves are part narrative control, part politics, part divorce from "the Blob."
- That derisive term for Beltway groupthink was coined by former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes. But its currency is stronger than ever.
The bottom line: In the D.C. national security community, high-level experience is lauded above almost all else. But for America First folks, a long resume just means you've been doing things wrong for a long time.
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