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The MeidasTouch Podcast
Former Pentagon Spokesperson Sabrina Singh on Trump Administration Chaos
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- [00:01]
Host
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- [00:33]
Sabrina Singh
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- [03:31]
Host
Americans have very little clarity right now what America's involvement may or may not be or will be in an escalating war in the Middle east between Iran and Israel, the Washington Post had this scoop that, quote, nobody is talking to Hegseth. One official said, quote, there is no interface operationally between Hegseth and the White House at all. That's right, folks. The head of the Department of Defense, the Defense Secretary, the Pentagon is not communicating with the White House about war operations. What's taking place, logistics. Instead, the article goes on to say that Donald Trump basically is listening to maybe three people, JD Vance as Vice President, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and Benjamin Netanyahu. And that's basically it. And he's not listening to Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national Intelligence, who within the past 90 days testified before Congress that Iran was not capable of being able to have a nuclear weapon anytime soon. Donald Trump was asked about that and he said, listen to her. I don't care what she has to say. And talk about undermining your director of national Intelligence saying I don't care what she has to say, especially on a topic this serious, whether or not Iran can have a nuclear weapon, when she testified under oath that they could not. And then, you know, Donald Trump and others had been saying that Iran could have a nuclear weapon any day and that what was so important about these Israeli strikes is that Iran was capable of getting a nuclear weapon any single day. Now, one of the things that Israel had been saying is that there was a nuclear facility in Iran called the Fordo facility, which was the one apparently capable of doing, of getting the nuclear weapon in a day, but that Israel didn't have the weapons, the bunker busting weapons to be able to hit it, and that they needed the United States B2 capabilities to get involved. But then on Friday, Donald Trump said he needed two weeks. And then he went to golf in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he's golfing on Friday, and he said he'll decide in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, you had Russia and China try to project themselves very intentionally as voices of reason calling for de escalation. And Xi Jinping saying, we need to really tone things down right now and not make things worse. You know, acting like they're the ones who are being diplomatic in the world, which was usually a position that we saw the United States, and now we see Donald Trump behaving the way we saw Kim Jong Un. You know, Donald Trump makes posts, you know, evacuate now, Tehran, exclamation point, it's too late. We're gonna kill you now. Exclamation. I mean, posts like that. And then he goes and says he's golfing in two weeks and now not communicating at all with the Department of Defense. Now, I wanted to share with you all this. This is recently Pete Hegseth going before the Senate. Senator Duckworth listed Pete Hegseth's failures in a very short period of time. And this is not an exhaustive list. This is a short Cliff Notes version of the list. But listen to what she had to say while he was sitting there right in front of her. Let's play this clip.
- [06:58]
Senator Duckworth
You are blowing through money like my fellow cadets and I did in our first liberty after basic camp. Luckily, I didn't end up with a questionable tattoo. Your failures, Mr. Secretary, since you've taken office has been staggering. You sent classified operational information over signal to chest thump in front of your wife, who, by the way, has no security clearance, risking service member lives in the process. You blew the $1 billion fight against the Houthis, whom, again, as my colleague says, has no Navy. And yet you lost all of those aircraft. You've created such a hostile command environment that no one wants to serve as your chief of staff or work with you in other senior DoD leadership roles. But what we should all be talking about more than all of this is that you have unjustified, un American misuse of the military in American cities, pulling resources and attention away from core missions to the detriment of the country, the war fighters, and, yes, the war fighting that you claim to love. I don't know if this is because you are too inexperienced and incompetent to understand the real threats facing our country, or. Or if it's because you are just an unqualified yes man who can't tell the President how to keep Americans safe?
- [08:05]
Host
No, I think it's both. Let's bring in former deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh. Sabrina, you have, you were there with the Defense Secretary under the Biden administration. I mean, here we are on the verge of escalating war in the Middle east and we're. The President's not talking to the Defense Secretary. I mean, talk us through that.
- [08:32]
Sabrina Singh
Yeah. I can't tell you how important it was and is for the Secretary of Defense to be part of any conversations happening with the President, whether they be in the Situation Room or in the Oval Office. And hopefully these are conversations not happening on a signal chat. But the Secretary of Defense is the civilian leader of the military and of course he gets the military advice, best military advice from, from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But if the reporting is accurate that he's not even part of these conversations, I mean, it shows how irrelevant Hegseth has truly become. And this is what happens when you have unserious people in serious roles. And so it's really concerning that while the department is moving additional fighter squadron to the region, plussing up our force posture across the Middle east, as you know, the United States has bases all across the Middle East. If the Secretary of Defense is not part of those conversations advocating for troops and what they need on the ground, that's deeply concerning. And so this is not something that we would have seen in the Biden administration. And this is also, I think something that you were getting to earlier is that Donald Trump is firing off these tweets and on social, on truth, social telling people to evacuate Tehran. And this is a moment where you really want steady leadership. You want someone that shows control. And the fact that Donald Trump is doing this and you have someone like Pete Hegseth who is clearly not experienced and not up for this job is not the way we would have done things in the Biden administration. As you know, Secretary Austin came to the table with an over 40 year career in the army and was a former four star general. So he knew how to position forces, he knew what his forces needed on the ground for their safety and security. And more importantly, if we do go to war, if we do join Israel in their joint strikes against this Fordo nuclear facility, there's a real possibility that Americans in Israel or across the Middle east will have to be evacuated. And I'm very concerned that we're not postured to help in any type of evacuation if needed.
- [10:49]
Host
Then we have Donald Trump doing this two week thing. Two week, this Two week that, you know it's going to be imminent. We need this in days, but I need two more weeks and maybe just talk to, I mean, to that point, how it creates instability on the ground that actually leads to making us weaker and less safe.
- [11:11]
Sabrina Singh
So we've sort of seen Donald Trump move the goalposts before. We've seen him do this, you know, over and over again, whether it's with Ukraine or with what's happening in Gaza or, or now give me two weeks. I need two weeks. I think part of it is a bit of posturing. Some of this is there are negotiations taking place between Britain, France, Germany and the head of the EU and the Foreign Minister of Iran on Friday in Switzerland. So that is probably what the administration wants to see, what comes out of those talks and to see if there is in fact a diplomatic off ramp here. The concern though is, is this two week delay or within two weeks, what does this mean? Israel is going to continue to strike Iran and Iran has said that they are going to continue to strike Israel back. So, you know, if you're not sending a clear message on exactly what you're signaling, no one can read the room. Which leaves a lot of ambiguity. And ambiguity in a situation like this, particularly when it comes to a potential wider spread conflict, is not something that you want to see. Especially when you have American forces on the ground in the Middle east who could be targeted by Iran. Should the United States join Israel in any joint strike operations.
- [12:31]
Host
The type of meeting you discussed in Switzerland with the European Union and Iranian officials and negotiations there, that would normally be the type of thing that you would have seen the United States taking leadership on. Or you know, look, Donald Trump was in Alberta for about five to seven hours at the G7. He quickly started praising Vladimir Putin, attacking American cities, attacking former President Biden, where it got so embarrassing that the Prime Minister of Canada had to shut down the easiest two minute press where you shake each other's hands and you say, I look forward to a productive G7. They had to shut the press conference out. Trump runs back to his self space, acts like there's about to be an imminent strike, there isn't. And then he goes and waits to see what's going to happen in, you know, what's going to happen in Switzerland. Because it seems like really what he wants to do, this is his plan, he sits back and if things go good, he takes credit for it and says that he did it. And if things go bad, he blames it on Biden and just blame or Blames it on whoever, it's their fault. It's not my fault. That's not a way to lead, huh?
- [13:44]
Sabrina Singh
You're absolutely right. I mean, this is not leadership. You know, when we have gone through crises like Ukraine or post October 7, you know, the world really looks to American leadership. Where is America going to stand when it comes to these conflicts that arise? You know, you cannot blame your predecessor for conflicts that, you know, pop up. And so, you know, you see Donald Trump, you know, using that as a deflection. And of course, you know, when the stock market goes down, it's Joe Biden's fault. When the stock market goes up, it's Donald Trump's success. So this is exactly the same type of, you know, posturing that we've seen this administration do. But when it comes to meetings like this, you know, there are the European nations are meeting with the Iranian foreign minister. That is a good thing. That is engagement. That is at least something, you know, moving some diplomatic talks forward. But absolutely, you know, the United States is usually a leader in this and in brokering peace. This is a president who says peace through strength. There will be no foreign conflicts on my watch. And yet here the United States is potentially getting dragged into a larger conflict. And I don't know what the day after plan is. I don't have a sense from this administration of what the, you know, what happens after. If the United States joins Israel and joint strikes, what's the plan next? And we've heard from Israel very forcefully that they want a regime change. Well, we've seen how regime changes work out, whether it be Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan. And we have not had a diplomatic presence in Iran for almost over 20 years. So we have no idea how that country is going to react and who could replace the supreme leader. So it's all very concerning when you don't have steady leadership in the room. And what you really want to see in the situation room is command and control. And of course, you know, I think everyone around the world unfortunately looks to truth social to see where Donald Trump's head is at, you know, by the hour, by the day. And that is, of course, deeply concerning.
- [15:52]
Host
You know, and I think the rest of the world views that though as incredibly weak and that this is, you know, an individual, whether you say it's the taco that he chickens out or the two weeks or, you know, it's like, I think in the aggregate, when you look at his truth social, the behavior is that of, you know, like a capitulin third grader. So I think you kind of put that on one side and the Trump regime can use their catchphrases. Big, beautiful bill, peace through strength, you know, whatever they want to say. But I think there's a reason why we've seen some of the biggest conflagrations, whether it's India and Pakistan, even though it was short lived. Then Donald Trump tried to take credit for a ceasefire there that he had nothing to do with. Why things are escalating between Russia and Ukraine, and Russia is escalating its efforts to attack Ukrainians. Things are being made worse. Why we have such instability in the Middle east, why you see a more aggressive China posturing the way it is, its ships by Australia and Japan. And now Japan has to build up its military to ways it never did before. Cuz it can't rely on the United States. To me, all of that sending an absolute signal of weakness. Because when Trump actually talks, and I just wanna share with you, you and our audience, these clips, I mean, how he did, we heard Senator Duckworth say, like how he dealt with the Houthis, you know, is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen. I mean, when he entered into this ceasefire with them and promised that our commercial ships would be able to traverse the Red Sea, which they're not to this day, as you and I are recording this on Friday, June 20, with no signs of doing it anytime soon, he praised the Houthis as though they were the greatest people ever. These were heroic people, honorable people. I take their word. Their word is my word. You know, here, watch what he said about the Houthis. It's wild.
- [17:45]
Donald Trump
Here, play it, take a look. But you know, we had really a very good, as, you know, we had a very good outcome with the Houthis and we honor their word. I mean, they made a commitment and we dealt with other countries that were close to them and their surrogates and we honor all of their words and we'll see what happens. But I think, you know, I, I believe that hopefully that's over with and they'll leave the ships alone, you know, leave those ships alone. But so we do, we take their word for it. It was, you know, we hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. And you know, you could say there's a lot of bravery there. That was amazing what, what they took. But we honor their commitment and they were, they gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ship anymore. And we honor that. I want to thank you all for.
- [18:45]
Host
Being we honor that. But then Defense secretary Pete Hegseth was recently before Congress Democratic congressmember Moulton, former veteran. Current veteran, former marines was. Did four terms and four tours in Iraq. Here was his questioning to Hexip. Let's play it.
- [19:02]
Congressman Moulton
You talked about the success of the Houthi operation, about how much money did it cost? How much money did you spend on missiles shooting at the Houthis?
- [19:09]
Sabrina Singh
These.
- [19:10]
Host
Well, you'd have to compare that with what it cost.
- [19:12]
Congressman Moulton
Just asking how many, how much did.
- [19:13]
Host
It convert our shipping lanes around?
- [19:15]
Congressman Moulton
I'm told it's several hundred million dollars, maybe close to a billion dollars. How many U. S. Flagged commercial ships have transited the Red Sea since your so called successful operation? Well, thankfully, unlike the previous administration, the answer is zero.
- [19:28]
Host
Military vessels transit.
- [19:29]
Congressman Moulton
No, no, no, I didn't ask military vessels.
- [19:31]
Host
I.
- [19:31]
Congressman Moulton
Well, which would be the commercial for how many commercial vessels? It's been several weeks. How many commercial vessels us flagged have trained?
- [19:38]
Sabrina Singh
Would you, Mr.
- [19:39]
Host
Congressman, put civilian ships.
- [19:40]
Congressman Moulton
The questions are not to me military secretary, they're to you.
- [19:43]
Host
We have responsibly put military.
- [19:44]
Congressman Moulton
The answer is zero. I reclaim my time.
- [19:48]
Host
I mean I think you put those clips together and what message is that sending if that's how we dealt with the Houthis who don't have a navy? What. What do other countries thinking right now?
- [20:02]
Sabrina Singh
Yeah, I mean the Houthi problem was also something that we dealt with as an administration. I think the difference here is that this administration is trying to explain something that is clearly not a success. I mean, that's correct. Commercial ships have not resumed transit through the Red Sea partly because they are scared, but also, I mean the Houthis are still a terrorist organization. Even though this administration did divert a ton of resources to trying to take out their capabilities, they still retain some of those. And so it's important that they trying to restore commercial shipping through the Red Sea. That's gonna take a lot of time. But the fact that you have the secretary of defense who can't even answer some of the basic questions. Again I go back to you have unserious people in these very serious roles and of course Pete Hegseth is the top one there. I think the world looks to the operation that happens, whether it be in the red se or some of the ongoing or lack thereof support for Ukraine. And I think that's why you're seeing allies and partners sort of balk at if the United States is really going to be there for them. I mean, Donald Trump leaving the G7 meeting early. Okay, fine. Presidents want to be back and he wanted to be back in the Situation Room. He wanted to be closer to being able to have conversations in real time. But again, it's turning our backs on our allies and cozing up to people like President Putin and praising them and praising the capabilities of the Houthis. I mean, that's not something that America does that America's presidents do. What we show and what history has shown in the past is real leadership on the world stage. And that's really what's concerning here, is that if America doesn't show that presence and leadership and power on the world stage, you're gonna have other nations that are going to come in and try and fill those roles and ultimately start reshaping what we know as the rules based order that we've had since World War II. And so, you know, again, we're going to continue to look to see what these operations are, what Israel is going to do, what the United States potentially might do. But it, you know, it is deeply concerning that I don't think this administration has thought through the plan that happens afterwards, which is similar to what, you know, we are seeing with the Houthis in the Red Sea.
- [22:30]
Host
I worry they don't have a plan afterwards. I worry they don't have a plan before. I worry that Donald Trump is winging every aspect of this. I worry that we don't have a defense secretary who knows at all anything about the Defense Department at the most basic level, who spends more time focused on if he's going to be wearing a camouflage tie today or this type of pin and how he's going to, you know, it's utterly ridiculous. But anyway, Sabrina saying thank you. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate you as always. Thank you, Everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection@store Midas Touch.com all 100% USA union made.