Buck Brief - Pentagon Headhunting and Trump Tariff Throwdowns

What’s the real story behind the rumors swirling around the Secretary of Defense? Buck Sexton breaks down the media’s failed takedown attempt of Pete Hegseth, why the left is obsessed with removing him, and what’s truly going on inside the Pentagon. From internal debates on Iran to national security leaks and the war on DEI, Buck shares insights you won’t hear anywhere else — including his personal connection to Hegseth and why Trump is standing firm. Plus, Buck dives into Trump’s tariff strategy with China and why the media’s take is, once again, dead wrong.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast, let make
sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. What is going on
at the Pentagon? That's a question that a lot of
people are asking, given the reporting that has been so
wrong lately, but very strongly suggesting that we're going to

(00:35):
have a change in the Secretary of Defense. That's not
going to happen. I told you on radio that's not
going to happen. But something is up over there. First off,
let's start with what's an issue here. The media is
trying to take down Pete Heggs at the Secretary of Defense.
The Democrat aligned corporate media apparatus wants him gone, which

(00:57):
is interesting because well, they've always wanted him gone. They
they tried to destroy him a few times, and he
has gotten more outrage and more anger from the Democrats
than any other member of Trump's cabinet. He's the one
that upsets them the most in his Secretary of Defense.
Were not even in a war, so you would think

(01:18):
that it wouldn't be a front and center issue, but
they're trying to take him down. Well, that's one part
of this, and they're not going to be successful because
I think Trump recognizes that if he were to cave
and give them the scalps, so to speak. Of Pete
hag Seth, who I've known for now fifteen years. Pete
and I started doing media right around the same time.

(01:40):
We came up as guys do doing shows together. Some
of you might even remember when Pete's first book came out.
I was at his New York City virtual book signing
with Kim Gilfoyle. It was Pete me Kim Gilfoyle sitting
there for a couple hours as he was doing virtual
signings on books, just to talk to him about the
book and keep him company basically. So, yeah, I know

(02:03):
Pete pretty well, and he's Secretary of Defense now and
I think he's doing an excellent job. They want to
destroy him, though, have to think, well why is that one?
They just want to show that they can still get
a cabinet level official removed from Trump's orbit. The Washington Post,
The New York Times, CNN. They very much want to

(02:26):
believe that they still have the kind of power in
the conversation to force out somebody who is a Senate
confirmed cabinet pick of one of the big what I
would consider the big three government cabinet position Secretary of State,
Secretary of Defense, and Treasury secretary. Those are the big three.
And I think that they view it as the beginning

(02:48):
of many others that they would push for if they
were successful in getting rid of Pete. That's one part
of this. They also hate that he has gone after
DEI and the absurdity that was festering inside of our
defense department. They feel like this is completely going into

(03:12):
what they had built as this lunacy factory. Right, so
they've decided that Pete hag Seth is enemy number one
for them on a whole range of fronts. Then there's
another piece of this that I think is interesting, and
I hear about this from some of the people not

(03:32):
directly involved, but let's say a person removed from it,
that there is, even on the right, a real debate
underway at the top echelons of the national security apparatus.
There's a real debate underway about what to do about
the Iran issue. And there are people who want to

(03:57):
see a US backing for an Israeli strike. There are
some people who think that maybe even America should take
part in a strike two. And then there are people
who say, no, we want to avoid this because we
absolutely do not want to be drawn into a situation
where we have to go to war with Iran. And

(04:21):
so there's a bit of leaking and gamesmanship that's going
on in the press, I think because people are positioning
themselves on this issue with that in mind, they're trying
to find a way to undermine those that they believe
at the top reaches of the Pentagon aren't aligned with
what they think. And when you're talking about something that

(04:44):
has those kind of ramifications for the country, true war
and peace, very you know, this is the highest of stakes.
I think it's easy for any individual to start to
justify playing a little bit dirty and maybe even dirty
on their own side, maybe even going after people they

(05:06):
agree with on those things. But on this issue, it's
so important to have alignment on how the US approaches
are on in Israel that everything else can be considered secondary.
So I do think that that is a part of this.
I do think that that is something that is at

(05:26):
issue here. And then when you look at leaks, look
if this is going on, if people around the Secretary
of Defense are leaking and they're leaking anything that could
be classified information. I mean, that's a serious issue because
you need to have the ability to trust the people,
not just to trust them as a secuary defense, but

(05:47):
we the American people need to trust that those who
have sensitive war plans, for example, aren't speaking too loosely
about or speaking loosely about them at all with those
who don't have a need to know. National security secrecy
has taken a real hit in recent years and really
stretching back now for I think going back to the

(06:08):
Bush administration, because if you remember during the Bush years,
there were a lot of national security leagues from inside
of the national security apparatus that were political in nature
and very sensitive information getting out there to try to
hurt Bush. And I don't remember that happening during Clinton.
I was very young. But I think it's created this
precedent where now people think, if I have to speak

(06:32):
out of school on something and maybe even break the
law to do it, as long as I'm doing it
for the right reasons, there's some sort of greater justification
for that. So that's that's I think a part of this.
And you know, they also I think they hate Pete
Hegseeth because he's so closely aligned with Trump. They think

(06:55):
that he's somebody who has brought back a focus on
war fighting and let's just be honest, testosterone and masculinity
for the military at the e ring Pentagon on senior
official level. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm never going to
be okay with I will never forget Secretary of Defense

(07:17):
Lloyd Austin walking around with like two masks and a
plastic face shield on during COVID. I mean that to that,
to me is disqualify. If you thought that double masking
and putting a plastic face shield in front of you
was somehow going to protect you from a virus, you
do not have the cognitive ability necessary to make the

(07:37):
kind of decisions we need from a senior government official
of any consequence, certainly not the Secretary of Defense. So
I found that one very I found that one, you know, instance,
very telling as to whether or not we could trust
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(07:59):
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(08:20):
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K sponsored by Preborn Visual. So yes, I think Pete
is on a whole range of things, refreshing and pushing

(09:46):
in the right direction. Yeah, as he new to this
level of management. Absolutely, he's never managed an organization. I mean,
I think if you're a world class manager of the Pentagon,
is probably very challenging for you. But yes, I think
that there's reason to continue to hold the line with
Pete here, and I think Trump's going to do so
and look forward to seeing what he's able to accomplish there.

(10:09):
All right now, on the tariffs, so Trump has said
he's gonna be nice. He's gonna be a little nice
to China, a little nice to China. He's gonna scale
things down a bit. Yeah, this is called negotiation. I
don't know why they in the media believe that anyone
should be assessing how successful or not successful Trump is

(10:33):
on the teriff issue when it's still ongoing. You know,
if I started to tell you how well a quarterback
played after the first quarter of the Super Bowl, you
would say, well, hold on a second, we've only seen
a quarter. You can't you can't know whether he had
a good game or not. That's exactly what's going on
now with the media. They're saying, Oh, but yeah, the

(10:54):
stock markets up, the stock markets down. Yeah, of course,
that's a lot of people engaged in speculation, trying to
gauge in the short term what they think the market
is going to be doing. A lot of people sloshing
money around. But this is about the long term structural
health of the economy, and it's about addressing things that

(11:16):
are difficult and complicated, like the trade war that has
been ongoing with China for a long time, because China
has a trade war against us, whether we want to
admit that and accept that or not. And so Trump
now is trying to write this he's the only one
who will do anything about this. Every other president, Republican Democrat,
won't touch this issue. Trump will actually try to, if

(11:37):
not solve it, make it better. And he wants to
sit down with she. He wants to have that mono emano,
you know, face off. And I totally understand one. He
just likes the he likes the showmanship of it. I mean,
this is who Trump is. But also I think he
believes that he's going to be in a position to

(11:59):
turn around and say, the American people, see what I
got for you. You know, he doesn't have to do this.
He doesn't have to be president even right, I mean,
he doesn't have to do any of this, but he
chose to do it, and he doesn't have to take
on this difficult challenge of trade. But he's doing it
because he thinks he can get better deals, a better
structure for us. And there have to be carrots and

(12:22):
sticks in these kind of things. It can't just be
I'll give you whatever you want China, or I'll give
the EU or any of our neighbors or allies whatever
it is that they want. Mind you, they all have tariffs.
And if tariffs are so horrible, explain to me why
Joe Biden left tariffs that Trump put in place on
three hundred and fifty billion dollars of goods. I want

(12:46):
to repeat that Trump comes in first term, not this term.
First term says China's ripping us off. This is garbage
we're putting there. Then they've got all kinds of tariffs
on us. Let's put some tariffs on them. And then
Joe Biden becomes president. Boo, I know. But he becomes
president and he doesn't abandon the Trump tariffs on China.

(13:08):
He leaves them. Well, if it's so terrible, why wouldn't
he switch it? Right? You're starting to see a pattern here.
You're starting to see that the so called consensus is wrong, wrong,
and wrong again when it comes to these things. And
let's just see where Trump can take this. It is
a live deal. We don't know anything yet because it's
not done yet. Trump tariffs, It's going to come together.

(13:31):
I have full faith in the man. Thanks for hanging
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