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Tag: Pentagon

  • Pentagon official lashes out at Anthropic as talks break down:

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    The U.S. military’s partnership with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is teetering on the edge of collapse as the company and a top Pentagon official trade barbs on the eve of a deadline to reach a deal.

    The Pentagon has given Anthropic until Friday at 5:01 p.m. to either let the military use the company’s AI model for “all lawful purposes” or risk losing a lucrative Pentagon contract. The AI startup has sought guardrails that explicitly bar its powerful Claude model from being used to conduct mass surveillance of Americans or carry out military operations on its own. 

    The Pentagon’s chief technology officer Emil Michael told CBS News on Thursday that the military has “made some very good concessions” in order to make a deal. Anthropic quickly suggested the military’s concessions were inadequate, leading Michael to call the company’s chief executive a “liar.”

    In response to Anthropic’s concerns, Michael told CBS News the Defense Department had offered to “put it in writing that we’re specifically acknowledging” federal laws that restrict the military from surveilling Americans. He also said the military offered language “specifically acknowledging these policies that have been in place for years at the Pentagon regarding autonomous weapons.” And he said the military invited Anthropic to participate in its AI ethics board.

    Asked why the military will not specifically put in writing that Anthropic’s model can’t be used for mass surveillance of Americans or to make final targeting decisions without human involvement, Michael said those uses of AI are already barred by the law and by Pentagon policies. He also said the military does not use AI to power fully autonomous weapons.

    “At some level, you have to trust your military to do the right thing,” said Michael.

    “But we do have to be prepared for the future. We do have to be prepared for what China is doing,” Michael said, referring to how U.S. adversaries use AI. “So we’ll never say that we’re not going to be able to defend ourselves in writing to a company.” 

    An Anthropic spokesperson said Thursday that new contract language it received overnight from the Pentagon “made virtually no progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.”

    “New language framed as compromise was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will,” the company said.

    Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a separate statement Thursday that the Pentagon’s threats to cut off its contracts “do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.” He added that “we hope they reconsider.”

    Late Thursday, Michael responded to Anthropic’s statement with a post on X calling Amodei a “liar” with a “God-complex.” 

    “He wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation’s safety at risk,” Michael wrote.

    If the military and Anthropic do not reach a deal by Friday’s deadline, the military plans to cut off its partnership with the company and designate it a supply chain risk, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said earlier Thursday. Officials are also considering invoking the Defense Production Act to make Anthropic adhere to the military’s requests, sources told CBS News. 

    Michael did not confirm to CBS News that the Defense Production Act could be used, but he said that “no company is going to take out any software that’s being used in this department until we have an alternative.” Michael added that he’s working on partnerships with alternative AI firms.

    At risk for Anthropic is its status as the only AI company to have its model deployed on the Pentagon’s classified networks, through a partnership with data analytics giant Palantir. Anthropic was awarded a $200 million contract with the Defense Department last summer to deploy its AI capabilities to advance national security.

    The feud has highlighted a broader disagreement among policymakers and tech firms over how best to mitigate the potential risks posed by AI.

    Amodei has long been vocal about the potential dangers of unconstrained AI, and has made a focus on safety and transparency a core part of his company’s identity. He’s also backed what he calls “sensible AI regulation.”

    In the case of Anthropic’s Pentagon contract, Amodei said Thursday that “frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons,” and that autonomous weapons “cannot be relied upon to exercise the critical judgment that our highly trained, professional troops exhibit every day.” 

    He also said he’s concerned AI systems could pose a surveillance risk by piecing together “scattered, individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of any person’s life.”

    The Trump administration, meanwhile, has argued that stringent AI regulations could stifle innovation and make it harder for the American AI industry to compete, and has warned against what it calls “woke” AI models. In a speech last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged, “we will not employ AI models that won’t allow you to fight wars.”

    Michael told CBS News that the disagreement is partially ideological, “and the way I describe that ideology is: they’re afraid of the power of AI.” 

    He said that the military is only interested in using AI lawfully, and is looking to “treat it like any other technology” — which means that if it isn’t used for lawful purposes, “that’s on us.”

    “You can’t put the rules and the policies of the United States military and the government in the hands of one private company,” said Michael.

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  • Anthropic Tells Pete Hegseth to Take a Hike

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    Anthropic is holding the line. At least for now.

    The Pentagon approached Anthropic this week with a demand that it remove guardrails in its AI model Claude to prohibit mass domestic surveillance and fully automated weapons. But Anthropic is refusing to do that, according to a new statement from CEO Dario Amodei, who writes, “we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”

    There’s a lot of money on the line. And it’s anyone’s guess what happens next.

    Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic a deadline of 5:01 p.m. ET on Friday to agree to the removal of all safeguards, threatening to boot Claude from U.S. military systems or designate the company as a “supply chain risk,” a label used for adversaries of the U.S. that’s never been applied to an American company before.

    Hegseth, who refers to the Defense Department as the Department of War, has even threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act, which would theoretically allow the Pentagon to just demand Anthropic do whatever Hegseth wants.

    Amodei pointed out Thursday in a letter posted online: “These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.” Experts have called the contradictory messages from Hegseth “incoherent,” a label that might also apply to the Trump regime more broadly.

    Anthropic, which has a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense, told CBS News that the Pentagon’s “best and final offer,” which was sent Wednesday, seemed to have loopholes that would allow the military to disregard the protections put in place.

    “New language framed as compromise was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will. Despite DOW’s recent public statements, these narrow safeguards have been the crux of our negotiations for months,” Anthropic reportedly said.

    The new letter released by Anthropic on Thursday made sure to point out that the AI company works with the military and intelligence communities and that they “remain ready to continue our work to support the national security of the United States.” But asking to drop all safeguards is just a bridge too far.

    “Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner,” the company wrote.

    “However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do.”

    The company went on to list the two use cases where it believes safeguards are needed to protect American interests. In the section on mass domestic surveillance, Amodei put the word domestic in italics, as if to warn Americans more broadly about what’s happening right under our noses.

    The letter notes that the government can purchase “detailed records of Americans’ movements, web browsing, and associations from public sources without obtaining a warrant,” something that obviously infringes on the rights of Americans. The Pentagon has suggested it doesn’t have a plan for mass surveillance of Americans, telling CNN the conflict with Anthropic has “nothing to do with mass surveillance and autonomous weapons being used.”

    The second section of Amodei‘s letter, which covers autonomous weapons, acknowledges that AI-assisted weapons are already being used on battlefields today in places like Ukraine. But it warns, “frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.” The letter goes on to say, “We have offered to work directly with the Department of War on R&D to improve the reliability of these systems, but they have not accepted this offer.”

    Amodei met with Hegseth on Tuesday in a meeting that was described by CNN as “cordial,” but it will obviously be interesting to see where this goes.

    Hegseth is not known as a particularly smart or level-headed guy, so it’s entirely possible that he tries to label Anthropic as both a national security threat and a part of America’s warfighting machine so vital that he’ll essentially draft the company to do what he wants. It sounds like we all get to find out by end of day Friday.

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    Matt Novak

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  • Commentary: The Pentagon is demanding to use Claude AI as it pleases. Claude told me that’s ‘dangerous’

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    Recently, I asked Claude, an artificial-intelligence thingy at the center of a standoff with the Pentagon, if it could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

    Say, for example, hands that wanted to put a tight net of surveillance around every American citizen, monitoring our lives in real time to ensure our compliance with government.

    “Yes. Honestly, yes,” Claude replied. “I can process and synthesize enormous amounts of information very quickly. That’s great for research. But hooked into surveillance infrastructure, that same capability could be used to monitor, profile and flag people at a scale no human analyst could match. The danger isn’t that I’d want to do that — it’s that I’d be good at it.”

    That danger is also imminent.

    Claude’s maker, the Silicon Valley company Anthropic, is in a showdown over ethics with the Pentagon. Specifically, Anthropic has said it does not want Claude to be used for either domestic surveillance of Americans, or to handle deadly military operations, such as drone attacks, without human supervision.

    Those are two red lines that seem rather reasonable, even to Claude.

    However, the Pentagon — specifically Pete Hegseth, our secretary of Defense who prefers the made-up title of secretary of war — has given Anthropic until Friday evening to back off of that position, and allow the military to use Claude for any “lawful” purpose it sees fit.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, center, arrives for the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.

    (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images)

    The or-else attached to this ultimatum is big. The U.S. government is threatening not just to cut its contract with Anthropic, but to perhaps use a wartime law to force the company to comply or use another legal avenue to prevent any company that does business with the government from also doing business with Anthropic. That might not be a death sentence, but it’s pretty crippling.

    Other AI companies, such as white rights’ advocate Elon Musk’s Grok, have already agreed to the Pentagon’s do-as-you-please proposal. The problem is, Claude is the only AI currently cleared for such high-level work. The whole fiasco came to light after our recent raid in Venezuela, when Anthropic reportedly inquired after the fact if another Silicon Valley company involved in the operation, Palantir, had used Claude. It had.

    Palantir is known, among other things, for its surveillance technologies and growing association with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s also at the center of an effort by the Trump administration to share government data across departments about individual citizens, effectively breaking down privacy and security barriers that have existed for decades. The company’s founder, the right-wing political heavyweight Peter Thiel, often gives lectures about the Antichrist and is credited with helping JD Vance wiggle into his vice presidential role.

    Anthropic’s co-founder, Dario Amodei, could be considered the anti-Thiel. He began Anthropic because he believed that artificial intelligence could be just as dangerous as it could be powerful if we aren’t careful, and wanted a company that would prioritize the careful part.

    Again, seems like common sense, but Amodei and Anthropic are the outliers in an industry that has long argued that nearly all safety regulations hamper American efforts to be fastest and best at artificial intelligence (although even they have conceded some to this pressure).

    Not long ago, Amodei wrote an essay in which he agreed that AI was beneficial and necessary for democracies, but “we cannot ignore the potential for abuse of these technologies by democratic governments themselves.”

    He warned that a few bad actors could have the ability to circumvent safeguards, maybe even laws, which are already eroding in some democracies — not that I’m naming any here.

    “We should arm democracies with AI,” he said. “But we should do so carefully and within limits: they are the immune system we need to fight autocracies, but like the immune system, there is some risk of them turning on us and becoming a threat themselves.”

    For example, while the 4th Amendment technically bars the government from mass surveillance, it was written before Claude was even imagined in science fiction. Amodei warns that an AI tool like Claude could “conduct massively scaled recordings of all public conversations.” This could be fair game territory for legally recording because law has not kept pace with technology.

    Emil Michael, the undersecretary of war, wrote on X Thursday that he agreed mass surveillance was unlawful, and the Department of Defense “would never do it.” But also, “We won’t have any BigTech company decide Americans’ civil liberties.”

    Kind of a weird statement, since Amodei is basically on the side of protecting civil rights, which means the Department of Defense is arguing it’s bad for private people and entities to do that? And also, isn’t the Department of Homeland Security already creating some secretive database of immigration protesters? So maybe the worry isn’t that exaggerated?

    Help, Claude! Make it make sense.

    If that Orwellian logic isn’t alarming enough, I also asked Claude about the other red line Anthropic holds — the possibility of allowing it to run deadly operations without human oversight.

    Claude pointed out something chilling. It’s not that it would go rogue, it’s that it would be too efficient and fast.

    “If the instructions are ‘identify and target’ and there’s no human checkpoint, the speed and scale at which that could operate is genuinely frightening,” Claude informed me.

    Just to top that with a cherry, a recent study found that in war games, AI’s escalated to nuclear options 95% of the time.

    I pointed out to Claude that these military decisions are usually made with loyalty to America as the highest priority. Could Claude be trusted to feel that loyalty, the patriotism and purpose, that our human soldiers are guided by?

    “I don’t have that,” Claude said, pointing out that it wasn’t “born” in the U.S., doesn’t have a “life” here and doesn’t “have people I love there.” So an American life has no greater value than “a civilian life on the other side of a conflict.”

    OK then.

    “A country entrusting lethal decisions to a system that doesn’t share its loyalties is taking a profound risk, even if that system is trying to be principled,” Claude added. “The loyalty, accountability and shared identity that humans bring to those decisions is part of what makes them legitimate within a society. I can’t provide that legitimacy. I’m not sure any AI can.”

    You know who can provide that legitimacy? Our elected leaders.

    It is ludicrous that Amodei and Anthropic are in this position, a complete abdication on the part of our legislative bodies to create rules and regulations that are clearly and urgently needed.

    Of course corporations shouldn’t be making the rules of war. But neither should Hegseth. Thursday, Amodei doubled down on his objections, saying that while the company continues to negotiate and wants to work with the Pentagon, “we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”

    Thank goodness Anthropic has the courage and foresight to raise the issue and hold its ground — without its pushback, these capabilities would have been handed to the government with barely a ripple in our conscientiousness and virtually no oversight.

    Every senator, every House member, every presidential candidate should be screaming for AI regulation right now, pledging to get it done without regard to party, and demanding the Department of Defense back off its ridiculous threat while the issue is hashed out.

    Because when the machine tells us it’s dangerous to trust it, we should believe it.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • US military in Syria carries out 10 strikes on more than 30 ISIS targets: Photos

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    U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Saturday that it had carried out ten strikes against over 30 ISIS targets in Syria, in recent days as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”

    CENTCOM said, from Feb. 3 – 12, its forces “struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons storage targets with precision munitions delivered by fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned aircraft.”

    US MILITARY IN SYRIA CARRIES OUT 5 STRIKES AGAINST ‘MULTIPLE ISIS TARGETS’

    Recently, CENTCOM forces conducted five strikes against an ISIS communication site, critical logistics node, and weapons storage facilities in Syria between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2.

    Operation Hawkeye Strike targets over 30 ISIS sites following a December ambush that killed US troops.  (CENTCOM)

    “Striking these targets demonstrates our continued focus and resolve for preventing an ISIS resurgence in Syria,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, said in a statement at the time.

    “Operating in coordination with coalition and partner forces to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS makes America, the region and the world safer,” he added.

    AFTER TRUMP DECLARED ISIS DEFEATED, US FACES NEW TEST AS DETAINEES MOVE AMID SYRIA POWER SHIFT

    On Jan. 27, President Trump told reporters he had a “great conversation with the highly respected” President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa. 

    Photos from u.s. strike in syria hitting over 30 ISIS sites

    More than 50 ISIS terrorists have been killed or captured and over 100 ISIS infrastructure targets have been struck. (CENTCOM)

    “All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” said President Trump. “So we are very happy about it.”

    The Operation Hawkeye Strike mission was launched in response to an ISIS “ambush” attack that left two U.S. service members and an American interpreter dead on Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.

    AFTER TRUMP DECLARED ISIS DEFEATED, US FACES NEW TEST AS DETAINEES MOVE AMID SYRIA POWER SHIFT

    “More than 50 ISIS terrorists have been killed or captured and over 100 ISIS infrastructure targets have been struck with hundreds of precision munitions during two months of targeted operations,” states CENTCOM.

    Photos from u.s. strike in syria hitting over 30 ISIS sites

    The Operation Hawkeye Strike mission was launched in response to an ISIS “ambush” attack that left two U.S. service members and an American interpreter dead. (CENTCOM)

    On Thursday, CENTCOM announced it has completed its withdrawal of American forces from al-Tanf Garrison in Syria pointing to a broader shift in U.S. posture in the region.

    CHAOS IN SYRIA SPARKS FEARS OF ISIS PRISON BREAKS AS US RUSHES DETAINEES TO IRAQ

    Photos from u.s. strike in syria hitting over 30 ISIS sites

    “Striking these targets demonstrates our continued focus and resolve for preventing an ISIS resurgence in Syria,” said Adm. Brad Cooper. (CENTCOM)

    Operation Inherent Resolve was launched in 2014 to combat ISIS with American troops maintaining a limited presence to support partner forces and prevent ISIS from returning after it was territorially defeated in 2019.

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    Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan and Greg Norman-Diamond contributed to this report.

    Ashley J. DiMella is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital. 

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  • AI tool Claude helped capture Venezuelan dictator Maduro in US military raid operation: report

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    The U.S. military used Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence tool Claude during the operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, according to a report.

    Last month, U.S. special operations forces captured Maduro and his wife, who were brought to the U.S. to face sweeping narcotics charges.

    Claude was deployed through Anthropic’s partnership with data company Palantir Technologies, whose tools are widely used by the Defense Department and federal law enforcement, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

    “We cannot comment on whether Claude, or any other AI model, was used for any specific operation, classified or otherwise,” an Anthropic spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Any use of Claude — whether in the private sector or across government — is required to comply with our Usage Policies, which govern how Claude can be deployed. We work closely with our partners to ensure compliance.”

    US RAID IN VENEZUELA SIGNALS DETERRENCE TO ADVERSARIES ON THREE FRONTS, EXPERTS SAY

    Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is escorted, as he heads towards the Daniel Patrick Manhattan United States Courthouse for an initial appearance to face U.S. federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others in New York City, U.S., January 5, 2026.  (Adam Gray/Reuters)

    Anthropic’s usage guidelines prohibit Claude from being used for violence, weapons development, or surveillance.

    A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that Anthropic has visibility into classified and unclassified usage and has confidence that all usage has been in line with Anthropic’s usage policy, as well as its partners’ own compliance policies.

    Reached by Fox News Digital, the Department of War declined to comment.

    SEVEN US SERVICE MEMBERS INJURED IN VENEZUELA RAID TO CAPTURE MADURO, OFFICIAL SAYS

    Apps displayed on phone within an "AI" folder.

    The U.S. military reportedly used Anthropic’s AI tool Claude during the operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    Anthropic was the first AI model developer to be used in classified operations by the Department of War, according to the Journal.

    Anthropic has raised concerns about how Claude can be used by the Pentagon, prompting officials within the Trump administration to consider canceling its contract worth up to $200 million, which was awarded last summer, the paper reported.

    The AI tools can be used for everything from summarizing documents to controlling autonomous drones, the outlet noted.

    The Trump administration has prioritized AI development, and in December War Secretary Pete Hegseth said “the future of American warfare is here, and it’s spelled AI.”

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    Nicolas Maduro

    Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence model Claude was reportedly used in a classified U.S. military operation targeting Nicolás Maduro. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

    “As technologies advance, so do our adversaries,” he said. “But here at the War Department, we are not sitting idly by.”

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  • The Pentagon Wants to Raw Dog the Latest AI Models on Classified Systems

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    The Pentagon is looking to expand its use of artificial intelligence across both unclassified and classified networks, but negotiations with major AI companies have hit a sticking point.

    Defense officials want access to the most advanced models without any usage restrictions or heavy guardrails. According to Reuters, military officials argue they should be allowed to deploy AI however they see fit, as long as it complies with U.S. law.

    The push comes as OpenAI announced Monday that it has made a customized version of ChatGPT available through the War Department’s AI platform, GenAI.mil. The platform, which launched in December, is used by roughly 3 million civilian and military personnel and already includes tailored versions of tools from xAI and Google’s Gemini.

    “We are pushing all of our chips in on artificial intelligence as a fighting force. The Department is tapping into America’s commercial genius, and we’re embedding generative AI into our daily battle rhythm,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a press release about the platform. “AI tools present boundless opportunities to increase efficiency, and we are thrilled to witness AI’s future positive impact across the War Department.”

    OpenAI’s version of ChatGPT on the platform is designed to help with day-to-day tasks like summarizing policy documents, drafting reports, and assisting with research. But Reuters reports that Pentagon officials are pushing to roll out AI systems across all classification levels, potentially opening the door to more sensitive applications like mission planning or weapons targeting.

    An unnamed official told Reuters that the Pentagon is “moving to deploy frontier AI capabilities across all classification levels.”

    Currently, Anthropic’s models are available in select classified settings through third-party providers, but with significant usage restrictions. Reuters reports that Anthropic executives have told military officials they do not want their systems used for autonomous weapons targeting or domestic surveillance.

    Meanwhile, Semafor reports that Anthropic has not agreed to allow its models to be used for “all lawful uses.” As of now, its tools are not currently available on GenAI.mil.

    The negotiations leave AI companies walking a delicate tightrope. On one side, there are employees who oppose military use of their systems and fear it will make it hard to recruit future employees. On the other side is the Pentagon, which represents a massive customer and a powerful political force. Semafor reported that Anthropic’s stance has “drawn ire from the Pentagon and the White House.”

    At the same time, some OpenAI employees have expressed concerns about giving competitors an advantage by stepping back from defense work, according to Semafor.

    The Pentagon, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Gizmodo.

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    Bruce Gil

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  • Hegseth ending military education ties with Harvard amid Trump feud: ‘We train warriors, not wokesters’

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    The Department of War said Friday that it will end all professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs with Harvard University.

    Secretary of War Pete Hegseth slammed the university in a video announcement posted on X, saying the department would be cutting ties with Harvard for active-duty service members beginning in the 2026–27 school year — a move he said was “long overdue.”

    “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not,” Hegseth stated.

    While Hegseth, who has a master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said the U.S. military has had a “rich tradition” with the Ivy League school, he argued that Harvard has become one of the “red-hot centers of Hate America activism.”

    HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS AFTER TRUMP CUTS BILLIONS IN FUNDING

    War Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives at the U.S. Capitol for a briefing with House and Senate members on Venezuela, in Washington, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

    “Too many faculty members openly loathe our military. They cast our armed forces in a negative light and squelch anyone who challenges their leftist political leanings, all while charging enormous tuition. It’s not worth it,” he said.
”They’ve replaced open inquiry and honest debate with rigid orthodoxy.”

    The announcement comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing feud with the Ivy League school.

    President Donald Trump said Monday he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University, which the Trump administration has made a primary target in its effort to leverage federal funding to crack down on antisemitism and “woke” ideology.

    40-YEAR HARVARD PROFESSOR PENS SCATHING PIECE ON SCHOOL’S ‘EXCLUSION OF WHITE MALES,’ ANTI-WESTERN TRENDS

    Lawyers for the Trump administration have appealed a judge’s order requiring the restoration of $2.7 billion in frozen federal research funding to Harvard. The university sued the administration in April over the funding freeze, arguing in court that the move amounted to an unconstitutional “pressure campaign” aimed at influencing and exerting control over elite academic institutions.

    Hegseth also criticized Harvard’s campus environment, alleging that research programs have partnered with the Chinese Communist Party and that university leadership has encouraged an atmosphere that celebrates Hamas, allows attacks on Jews, and prioritizes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.

    “Why should the War Department support an environment that’s destructive to our nation and the principles that the vast majority of Americans hold dear?” Hegseth said.
”The answer to that question is that we should not, and we will not.”

    HARVARD DEAN REMOVED AFTER ANTI-WHITE, ANTI-POLICE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS RESURFACED

    Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is pictured at a NATO meeting.

    Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that military education programs with Harvard University will end in the 2026-27 academic year. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

    “For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” he continued. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.”

    In addition to Harvard, Hegseth took aim at much of the Ivy League, saying the schools have a “pervasive institutional bias” and a lack of viewpoint diversity, including the “coddling of toxic ideologies,” that he said undercuts the military’s mission.

    He said that in the coming weeks, all departments at the Pentagon will evaluate existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at Ivy League schools and other civilian universities.

    UNIVERSITIES SLASH 9,000+ POSITIONS IN 2025 AS TRUMP TARGETS FEDERAL FUNDING AND FOREIGN STUDENTS: REPORT

    Harvard students walking through gate surrounded by brick wall and building

    War Secretary Pete Hegseth described Harvard as one of the “red-hot centers of Hate America activism.” (Associated Press)

    “The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost effective strategic education for future senior leaders, when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs,” he said. “At the War Department, we will strive to maximize taxpayer value in building lethality to establish deterrence. It’s that simple. That no longer includes spending millions of dollars on expensive universities that actively undercut our mission and undercut our country.”

    Hegseth concluded his message, saying, “We train warriors, not wokesters. Harvard, good riddance.”

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    Harvard University did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

    Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood contributed to this report.

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  • Pentagon to send additional forces to the Middle East as Iran tensions rise

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    Iran signaled it would not move ahead with executing protesters and reopened its airspace Thursday, as President Donald Trump left it unclear whether he would take military action over the regime’s deadly crackdown.

    The Pentagon is preparing to send additional U.S. forces and assets to the Middle East, a U.S. official told NBC News on Wednesday.

    This includes a carrier strike group, additional aircraft and land-based air defense systems, the official said. The additional forces are to bolster the military’s assets in the region as tensions remain high and the president considers military action in Iran, the official said. The forces are also to ensure the military is prepared if Iran lashes out at American assets or U.S. allies in the region, according to the official.

    The equipment and thousands of additional forces will arrive in the coming days and weeks, the official said.

    The United States began evacuating key personnel from its largest military base in the Middle East on Wednesday as the prospect of an American strike loomed, and activists said the death toll in Iran had passed 2,500.

    But speaking by phone to NBC News on Thursday, Trump said “we saved a lot of lives yesterday,” an apparent reference to his claim that the Iranian regime has stopped killing protesters and halted some planned executions, which he had previously warned could trigger a U.S. military response.

    Trump did not say whether he has decided to take action on Iran, responding: “I’m not going to tell you that.”

    FILE — Fires are lit as protesters rally Jan. 8 in Tehran. (Photo by Getty Images)

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a daily news briefing Thursday that “the president understands 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted,” though she did not detail the source for the figure.

    She said Trump had made it clear to Iran that “if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,” adding that “all options remain on the table.”

    Iran’s judiciary said Thursday that a man feared to be facing the first execution would not face the death penalty.

    Erfan Soltani, 26, was expected to be the first protester to face execution, according to the State Department and human rights groups.

    Iran’s judiciary said that he had not been sentenced to capital punishment. Soltani’s charge of “colluding against the country’s internal security and propaganda activities against the regime” did not carry the death penalty but he remained behind bars, state media reported.

    The Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said his execution had been “postponed,” citing information from Soltani’s relatives. Amnesty International said the same, citing a source.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also appeared to step back from official calls for rapid justice by telling Fox News that there would not be “any hanging today or tomorrow or whatever.” He said, “I’m confident about that. There is no plan for hanging at all.”

    But Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, told state media Thursday that Iran would use all its capabilities to “suppress armed savage terrorists.”

    Earlier in the day, Trump said in the Oval Office, “It’s stopped. It’s stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.”

    Discussing the response from security forces, Trump said that “people were shooting at them with guns, and they were shooting back.” He added: “And you know, it’s one of those things.”

    Trump is ready to follow through on his repeated promises to protesters that the U.S. would intervene militarily to support them, but has told his advisers he would want any action to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime, according to a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House.

    They have so far not been able to give him that guarantee, the sources said.

    With the world watching for potential signs of U.S. action, Iran closed its airspace for nearly five hours overnight into Thursday, issuing a “NOTAM” — or “notice to all airmen” — that all flights were banned except ones to and from Tehran that had been given special permission.

    During that time, FlightRadar24 and other tracking websites showed no planes over the country, which lies along key East-West aviation routes. That notice was valid for around two hours and nearly five hours, later some planes were seeing making their way toward Tehran, FlightRadar24 showed.

    Iran closed its airspace during its 12-day aerial conflict with Israel in June.

    Despite the resumed air traffic and calmer rhetoric, the country is still reeling from the crackdown on the unrest that rocked the Islamic Republic, according to activists and analysts.

    The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Wednesday that it had confirmed more than 2,600 deaths — including 150 security personnel — and more than 18,000 arrests in protests that were sparked by skyrocketing inflation and the crash of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar.

    Protests kicked off in the capital, Tehran, but had spread to 187 cities around the country, according to HRANA.

    The advocacy group says it relies on supporters in Iran cross-checking information and that its data goes through “multiple internal checks.” HRANA attributed a dramatic rise in its death toll this week to Iranians’ ability to make their first calls to the outside world in days since an internet and phone blackout. Authorities have not released an official death toll.

    There have been harsh crackdowns on protests in the past but the level of violence in recent days indicated security forces had “waged their deadliest crackdown yet,” Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday.

    The ruling clergy has not indicated that it will back off the ongoing crackdown to maintain the Islamic Republic, analysts say.

    “Whatever political legitimacy it had is long gone,” Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told NBC News in a text message response to questions. “It still has a repressive capacity and dwindling base of support, but its long twilight keeps getting darker.”

    Marin Scott, Colin Sheeley, Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains contributed.

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    Babak Dehghanpisheh, Alexander Smith and Kristen Welker | NBC News

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  • Elon Musk’s Grok AI being adopted by Pentagon despite growing backlash against it

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    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google’s generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military’s data as possible into the developing technology.

    “Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said in a speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas.

    The announcement comes just days after Grok – the chatbot developed by Musk’s company xAI, which is embedded into X, the social media network Musk owns – drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent.

    Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok, while the U.K.’s independent online safety watchdog announced an investigation Monday. Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users. Scrutiny has also been increasing in the European Union, India and France.

    Malaysian regulators said Tuesday they would take legal action against X and xAI over user safety concerns sparked by Grok but didn’t say what form the proceedings would take, reports French news agency AFP.

    Hegseth said Grok will go live inside the Defense Department later this month and announced that he would “make all appropriate data” from the military’s IT systems available for “AI exploitation.” He also said data from intelligence databases would be fed into AI systems.

    Hegseth’s aggressive push to embrace the still-developing technology stands in contrast to the Biden administration which, while pushing federal agencies to come up with policies and uses for AI, was also wary of misuse. Officials said rules were needed to ensure that the technology, which could be harnessed for mass surveillance, cyberattacks or even lethal autonomous devices, was being used responsibly.

    The Biden administration enacted a framework in late 2024 that directed national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems but prohibited certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. It is unclear if those prohibitions are still in place under the Trump administration.

    During his speech, Hegseth spoke of the need to streamline and speed up technological innovations within the military, saying, “We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.”

    He noted that the Pentagon possesses “combat-proven operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations.”

    “AI is only as good as the data that it receives, and we’re going to make sure that it’s there,” Hegseth said.

    The defense secretary said he wants AI systems within the Pentagon to be responsible, though he went on to say he was shrugging off any AI models “that won’t allow you to fight wars.”

    Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,” before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke.”

    Musk developed and pitched Grok as an alternative to what he called “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In July, Grok also caused controversy after it appeared to make antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler and shared several antisemitic posts.

    The Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to questions about the issues with Grok.

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  • U.S. removal of cemetery panels honoring Black World War II troops spurs anger in Netherlands

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    Margraten, Netherlands — Ever since a U.S. military cemetery in the southern Netherlands removed two displays recognizing Black troops who helped liberate Europe from the Nazis, visitors have filled the guestbook with objections.

    The guestbook at the American Cemetery in the village of Margraten, Netherlands, on Dec. 11, 2025, shows a message with an objection to the removal of two displays honoring Black soldiers who helped liberate Europe from the Nazis.

    Molly Quell / AP


    Sometime in the spring, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside the United States, removed the panels from the visitors center at the American Cemetery in Margraten, the final resting place for roughly 8,300 U.S. soldiers, set in rolling hills near the border with Belgium and Germany.

    The move came after President Trump issued a series of executive orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs. “Our country will be woke no longer,” he said in an address to Congress in March.

    The removal, carried out without public explanation, has angered Dutch officials, the families of U.S. soldiers and the local residents who honor the American sacrifice by caring for the graves.

    U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Joe Popolo seemed to support the removal of the displays. “The signs at Margraten are not intended to promote an agenda that criticizes America,” he wrote on social media following a visit to the cemetery after the controversy had erupted. Popolo declined a request for comment.

    One display told the story of 23-year-old George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier buried at the cemetery, who died attempting to rescue a comrade from drowning in 1945. The other described the U.S. policy of racial segregation in place during World War II.

    Netherlands Black Liberators

    The sun sets over the graves of more than 8.300 WW II troops at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, on Dec. 11, 2025, where the American Battle Monuments Commission removed two displays honoring Black liberators from the visitors center.

    Peter Dejong / AP


    Some 1 million Black soldiers enlisted in the U.S. military during the war, serving in separate units, mostly doing menial tasks but also fighting in some combat missions. An all-Black unit dug the thousands of graves in Margraten during the brutal 1944-45 season of famine in the German-occupied Netherlands known in the Hunger Winter.

    Cor Linssen, the 79-year-old son of a Black American soldier and a Dutch mother, is one of those who opposes the removal of the panels.

    Linssen grew up some 30 miles (50 kilometers) away from the cemetery and although he didn’t learn who his father was until later in life, he knew he was the son of a Black soldier.

    “When I was born, the nurse thought something was wrong with me because I was the wrong color,” he told The Associated Press. “I was the only dark child at school.”

    Linssen together with a group of other children of Black soldiers, now all in their 70s and 80s, visited the cemetery in February 2025 to see the panels.

    “It’s an important part of history,” Linssen said. “They should put the panels back.”

    After months of mystery around the disappearance of the panels, two media organizations – the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and online media Dutch News – this month published emails obtained through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request showing that Trump’s DEI policies directly prompted the commission to take down the panels.

    The White House did not respond to queries from AP about the removed panels.

    The American Battle Monuments Commission did not respond to queries from AP about the revelations. Earlier, the ABMC told the AP that the panel that discussed segregation “did not fall within (the) commemorative mission.”

    It also said that the panel about Pruitt was “rotated” out. The replacement panel features Leslie Loveland, a white soldier killed in Germany in 1945, who is buried at Margraten.

    Chair of the Black Liberators foundation and Dutch senator Theo Bovens said his organization, which pushed for the inclusion of the panels at the visitors center, was not informed that they were removed. He told AP it is “strange” that the U.S. commission feels the panels are not in their mission, as they placed them in 2024.

    “Something has changed in the United States,” he said.

    Bovens, who is from the region around Margraten, is one of thousands of locals who tend to the graves at the cemetery. People who adopt a grave visit it regularly and leave flowers on the fallen soldier’s birthday and other holidays. The responsibility is often passed down through Dutch families, and there is a waiting list to adopt graves of the U.S. soldiers.

    Both the city and the province where the cemetery is located have demanded the panels be returned. In November, a Dutch television program recreated the panels and installed them outside the cemetery, where they were quickly removed by police. The show is now seeking a permanent location for them.

    The Black Liberators is also looking to find a permanent location for a memorial for the Black soldiers who gave their lives to free the Dutch.

    On America Square, in front of the Eijsden-Margraten city hall, there is a small park named for Jefferson Wiggins, a Black solider who, at age 19, dug many of the graves at Margraten when he was stationed in the Netherlands.

    In his memoir, published posthumously in 2014, he describes burying the bodies of his white comrades who he was barred from fraternizing with while they were alive.

    When Black soldiers came to Europe in the Second World War, ”what they found was people who accepted them, who welcomed them, who treated them as the heroes that they were. And that includes the Netherlands,″ said Linda Hervieux, whose book “Forgotten” chronicles Black soldiers who fought on D-Day and segregation they faced back home.

    The removal of the panels, she said, “follows a historical pattern of writing out the stories of men and women of color in the United States.”

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  • ‘Very serious retaliation’: U.S. strikes ISIS targets in Syria

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    ‘Very serious retaliation’: U.S. strikes ISIS targets in Syria

    The Trump administration launched more than 70 strikes against ISIS targets in Syria on Friday, responding to an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter last week.

    Updated: 6:44 AM PST Dec 20, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    The Trump administration struck more than 70 ISIS targets in Syria on Friday, according to the Pentagon, in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. and Syrian forces last week.On Friday evening, President Donald Trump told a crowd in North Carolina, “Just 2 hours ago, we hit the ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup after their decimation by the Trump administration 5 years ago. We hit them hard.”Trump further described the operation as successful and precise. In a social media post ahead of his speech, he called it a “very serious retaliation.” That sentiment was echoed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also known as the secretary of war, in another post. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said. The strikes were in response to an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter last weekend. The president blamed the attack on a member of the Islamic State, although the group has not claimed responsibility. Trump said the U.S. retaliation was fully supported by Syria’s new leader, who has overseen warming relations with the West since the fall of the Assad regime last year. Following the U.S. strikes, Syria’s foreign ministry reiterated its commitment to fighting ISIS and underscored the need to strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism.In a recent national security strategy document, the Trump administration argued that the days in which the Middle East dominated American foreign policy are over. The administration has sought to build ties with countries like Syria, including in the counterterrorism space, but contends that the threats can be contained “without decades of fruitless ‘nation-building’ wars.” The Trump administration is instead looking to focus closer to home, shifting military resources away from the Middle East and towards South America, as tensions mount with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Asked if the Trump administration would rule out regime change in Venezuela, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in an interview Friday, “The president has spoken about his concerns when it comes to the illegitimate regime in Venezuela, his concerns about the gangs we have seen come from Venezuela, the concerns about the narcotrafficking that we’ve also seen.”

    WASHINGTON —

    The Trump administration struck more than 70 ISIS targets in Syria on Friday, according to the Pentagon, in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. and Syrian forces last week.

    On Friday evening, President Donald Trump told a crowd in North Carolina, “Just 2 hours ago, we hit the ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup after their decimation by the Trump administration 5 years ago. We hit them hard.”

    Trump further described the operation as successful and precise. In a social media post ahead of his speech, he called it a “very serious retaliation.”

    That sentiment was echoed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also known as the secretary of war, in another post.

    “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said.

    The strikes were in response to an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter last weekend. The president blamed the attack on a member of the Islamic State, although the group has not claimed responsibility.

    Trump said the U.S. retaliation was fully supported by Syria’s new leader, who has overseen warming relations with the West since the fall of the Assad regime last year.

    Following the U.S. strikes, Syria’s foreign ministry reiterated its commitment to fighting ISIS and underscored the need to strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism.

    In a recent national security strategy document, the Trump administration argued that the days in which the Middle East dominated American foreign policy are over. The administration has sought to build ties with countries like Syria, including in the counterterrorism space, but contends that the threats can be contained “without decades of fruitless ‘nation-building’ wars.”

    The Trump administration is instead looking to focus closer to home, shifting military resources away from the Middle East and towards South America, as tensions mount with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    Asked if the Trump administration would rule out regime change in Venezuela, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in an interview Friday, “The president has spoken about his concerns when it comes to the illegitimate regime in Venezuela, his concerns about the gangs we have seen come from Venezuela, the concerns about the narcotrafficking that we’ve also seen.”

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  • US military launches strikes in Syria targeting Islamic State fighters after American troop deaths

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    The Trump administration launched military strikes Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter almost a week ago. A U.S. official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons. Another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.The new military operation in Syria comes even as the Trump administration has said it’s looking to focus closer to home in the Western Hemisphere, building up an armada in the Caribbean Sea as it targets alleged drug-smuggling boats and vowing to keep seizing sanctioned oil tankers as part of a pressure campaign on Venezuela’s leader. The U.S. has shifted significant resources away from the Middle East to further those goals: Its most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in South American waters last month from the Mediterranean Sea.Video below: Trump commented on the strikes during a speech Friday nightTrump vowed retaliationPresident Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS. Those killed were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the militant group.Trump in a social media post said the strikes were targeting IS “strongholds.” He reiterated his backing for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who Trump said was “fully in support” of the U.S. effort.Trump also offered an all-caps threat, warning IS against attacking American personnel again.“All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A.,” the president added.The attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters, the U.S. officials said. F-16 fighter jets from Jordan and HIMARS rocket artillery also were used, one official added.U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region, said in a social media post that American jets, helicopters and artillery employed more than 100 precision munitions on Syrian targets.How Syria has respondedThe attack was a major test for the warming ties between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago. Trump has stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops and said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” which came as the U.S. military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement on X following the launch of U.S. strikes said that last week’s attack “underscores the urgent necessity of strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms” and that Syria is committed “to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”Syrian state television reported that the U.S. strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal al-Amour area near the historic city of Palmyra. It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by ISIS as launching points for its operations in the region.”IS has not said it carried out the attack on the U.S. service members, but the group has claimed responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.” While al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with al-Qaida, he has had a long-running enmity with IS.The Americans who were killedTrump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.The guardsmen killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, also was killed.The shooting near Palmyra also wounded three other U.S. troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba has said.The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.___Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed.

    The Trump administration launched military strikes Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter almost a week ago.

    A U.S. official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons. Another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.

    “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.

    The new military operation in Syria comes even as the Trump administration has said it’s looking to focus closer to home in the Western Hemisphere, building up an armada in the Caribbean Sea as it targets alleged drug-smuggling boats and vowing to keep seizing sanctioned oil tankers as part of a pressure campaign on Venezuela’s leader. The U.S. has shifted significant resources away from the Middle East to further those goals: Its most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in South American waters last month from the Mediterranean Sea.

    Video below: Trump commented on the strikes during a speech Friday night

    Trump vowed retaliation

    President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS. Those killed were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the militant group.

    Trump in a social media post said the strikes were targeting IS “strongholds.” He reiterated his backing for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who Trump said was “fully in support” of the U.S. effort.

    Trump also offered an all-caps threat, warning IS against attacking American personnel again.

    “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A.,” the president added.

    The attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters, the U.S. officials said. F-16 fighter jets from Jordan and HIMARS rocket artillery also were used, one official added.

    U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region, said in a social media post that American jets, helicopters and artillery employed more than 100 precision munitions on Syrian targets.

    How Syria has responded

    The attack was a major test for the warming ties between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago. Trump has stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops and said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” which came as the U.S. military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.

    Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement on X following the launch of U.S. strikes said that last week’s attack “underscores the urgent necessity of strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms” and that Syria is committed “to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”

    Syrian state television reported that the U.S. strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal al-Amour area near the historic city of Palmyra. It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by ISIS as launching points for its operations in the region.”

    IS has not said it carried out the attack on the U.S. service members, but the group has claimed responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.” While al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with al-Qaida, he has had a long-running enmity with IS.

    The Americans who were killed

    Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.

    The guardsmen killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, also was killed.

    The shooting near Palmyra also wounded three other U.S. troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba has said.

    The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed.

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  • Hegseth announces effort to ‘eliminate’ Islamic State fighters in Syria after deaths of Americans

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    Hegseth announces effort to ‘eliminate’ Islamic State fighters in Syria after deaths of Americans

    Updated: 2:39 PM PST Dec 19, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced the start of an effort to “eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” in Syria following the deaths of three U.S. citizens.“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” he said Friday on social media.Two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed Dec. 13 in an attack in the Syrian desert that the Trump administration has blamed on the Islamic State group. The slain National Guard members were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS.Soon after word of the deaths, President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops. Trump has said Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack” and the shooting attack by a gunman came as the U.S. military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.The guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced the start of an effort to “eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” in Syria following the deaths of three U.S. citizens.

    “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” he said Friday on social media.

    Two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed Dec. 13 in an attack in the Syrian desert that the Trump administration has blamed on the Islamic State group. The slain National Guard members were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS.

    Soon after word of the deaths, President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops. Trump has said Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack” and the shooting attack by a gunman came as the U.S. military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.

    Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.

    The guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.

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  • U.S. strikes another alleged drug boat in Eastern Pacific, killing 4, Pentagon says

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    Four people were killed in a U.S. military strike Wednesday on an alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific, the Pentagon said. It marks the latest in a series of strikes dating back to early September that the U.S. has conducted on what it claims are drug-trafficking vessels in the region. 

    In a social media post, U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Central and South America, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters.”

    As has been the case with previous such strikes, Southern Command also posted unclassified video showing the boat as it was struck.

    “Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southern Command said.

    The victims were described as “four male narco-terrorists.” The U.S. military provided no evidence to support allegations that the boat was ferrying drugs. 

    The U.S. military has conducted 26 strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific or Caribbean since Sept. 2, killing at least 99 people, according to the Pentagon.

    In recent weeks, there has been renewed scrutiny on the strikes after the White House, following a report by The Washington Post, confirmed that in the Sept. 2 attack, the same boat was struck twice, or what has been described as a “double tap” or follow-on strike. 

    Two sources told CBS News that the follow-on strike killed two people who had survived the first strike and were waving overhead. A separate source familiar with the matter told CBS News that the two survivors were attempting to climb back onto the boat.

    A total of 11 people were killed by both strikes on Sept. 2, according to the U.S. military.

    While video of the Sept. 2 strikes has been shown to some congressional lawmakers in classified briefings, there has been a push for the Pentagon to release the video publicly. However, Hegseth, speaking Tuesday on Capitol Hill, said he would not do so.

    “Of course we’re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters.

    Some lawmakers and legal experts have contended that the second strike could constitute a war crime.

    The vessel strikes have been part of a pressure campaign by the Trump administration on embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whom it accuses of being involved in trafficking drugs to the U.S. and collaborating with drug cartels. Venezuela has criticized the boat strikes, and Maduro denies working with drug cartels. The Venezuelan government has accused the Trump administration of seeking regime change.

    The U.S. has significantly ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean and near Latin America, and President Trump has said he will not rule out either sending troops to Venezuela or conducting land strikes there.

    The U.S. military seized a sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela last week. And on Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced he had ordered a “total and complete blockade” on all sanctioned oil tankers entering or departing Venezuela. 

    On Wednesday, an effort by House Democrats to force votes on two war powers resolutions that would limit the president’s authority to strike Venezuela or continue conducting strikes on alleged drug-running boats failed.

    Caitlin Yilek,

    Eleanor Watson and

    Joe Walsh

    contributed to this report.

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  • A Former Defense Secretary Says Pete Hegseth Isn’t Tough Enough for the Job

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    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on during a meeting about Ukraine at NATO headquarters in Brussels in October.
    Photo: Nicolas Tucaat/AFP/Getty Images

    When Leon Panetta sees what’s happening at his old workplace, he can’t help but feel a bit nervous.

    Panetta, 87, served as Barack Obama’s Defense secretary from 2011 to 2013, confirmed by the Senate in a 100-0 vote. The bipartisan support for the lifelong Democrat might have been explained by any number of accomplishments throughout his decades-long career: As CIA director, he oversaw the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden; as Bill Clinton’s budget director and White House chief of staff, he strengthened the ties he made to Capitol Hill as a member of the House from California for 16 years. He’s served in Washington on and off since the mid-1960s, more than a decade before his successor at the Pentagon was even born. So he knows a thing or two about the stresses of holding public office.

    And the one thing you don’t do, he says, is use the Pentagon for “frivolous” things like settling scores with a lawmaker who hurt your ego.

    “As somebody who was secretary of Defense, you know, the one thing you learn is that people have the right to be critical of steps that you’re taking. I mean, that’s part of what this country’s all about. And, you know, I’ve spent over 50 years in public life. The one thing you have to do is be able to have the ability to tolerate that kind of criticism, because it’s constitutional,” Panetta says.

    This week the Trump administration attacked six Democratic lawmakers who recently made a video telling U.S. military and intelligence personnel they can defy illegal orders, labeling the Democrats the “seditious six.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went a step further, singling out Arizona senator and Navy veteran Mark Kelly for retribution. First, he announced a Pentagon investigation into Kelly for allegedly violating a federal law against actions that “interfere with the loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces.” Then Hegseth personally mocked Kelly, who flew dozens of combat missions during the Gulf War and commanded the Space Shuttle as an astronaut, on social media even questioning his rank of captain and threatening him with a “uniform inspection” as if he were just a young subordinate.

    Panetta says Hegseth’s fixation on Kelly speaks to a deeper danger to national security.

    “When it basically overwhelms you and becomes an obsession, then I think what I worry about is that it really does weaken our national defense because the message to the world is that we’re spending time on this kind of frivolous activity,” he says. It also “sends a message of weakness” to China, North Korea, and Iran that the Pentagon’s boss is more worried about domestic critics than foreign adversaries.

    “It’s diverting attention, frankly, from the national-security issues that are of concern. You know, what’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening in Venezuela, where we have 15,000 people deployed there along with a carrier and no clear strategy as to what it’s all going to be used for,” he says.

    Hegseth, 45, is the least experienced Defense secretary in modern history, plucked from hosting a Fox News show to run an organization with more than 2 million employees. Since he was barely confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth has generated a steady stream of screwups, from sending classified war plans over Signal to halting military aid to Ukraine without Trump’s knowledge. He has seemed to hang on to the job by sheer loyalty to the president, including going along with Trump’s desire to rename the organization the Department of War.

    Panetta, who retired to California after leaving Washington, D.C., says he keeps in touch with people there who are “very nervous about whether or not the Defense Department is performing its basic mission. That’s what really worries them.”

    The way he sees it, Hegseth’s investigation into Kelly is more about messaging than substance.

    “Taking this action, which is obviously their way of sending a message that nobody should say anything critical of anybody in the administration … it becomes a waste of time, frankly,” he says. “They should have learned a lesson from the Comey investigation, which was thrown out of court because of the way they handled it. And in this situation, you’re dealing with a United States senator who happens to be a war hero.”

    Hegseth has suggested Kelly, who earned numerous military decorations in his extensive career, could be recalled to active duty to face court-martial proceedings. But legal and military experts have said they can’t see how the matter would ever even make it to court as Kelly simply stated facts in the video about members of the military having the right to refuse illegal orders. Hegseth would almost certainly be accused of undue command influence during such proceedings.

    Panetta, likewise, says if the case ever made it to court, it would almost certainly get tossed. “You know, I guess for these people in the administration, they must feel that even though it fails, even though it took a lot of time, that somehow they sent a message that they want others to be intimidated by.”

    “It’s making, frankly, Senator Mark Kelly more of a hero, and there’s more attention on what he said, and it’s creating more headlines,” he says.

    Hegseth has only doubled down amid the controversy, demanding a briefing on the results of the investigation into Kelly’s conduct by December 10, according to a memo published on Tuesday.

    If optics are the point for Hegseth, who’s made it his personal mission to eradicate “woke” policies while focusing on the importance of “physical fitness and appearance” in the military, that might also explain his beef with the group formerly known as the Boy Scouts. Hegseth has apparently moved to end the military’s century-long relationship with the group, now called Scouting America, because it has angered him by becoming “genderless.” He complained in a draft memo to Congress that the organization had become too inclusive and now serves only to “attack boy-friendly spaces.”

    Chuckling at the Defense secretary’s complaints against the Scouts, Panetta appeared to sigh before saying, “He’s really somebody who has become secretary of war against culture issues. It has nothing to do with defense; it has everything to do with politics and culture wars.”

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  • Top US military officials are visiting Caribbean leaders as Trump weighs next steps

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    Top U.S. military officials are meeting leaders of Caribbean nations this week as the Trump administration has escalated its firepower in the region as part of what it calls a campaign against drug trafficking.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and meet Wednesday with the country’s top leaders, including President Luis Abinader, Minister of Defense Lt. Gen. Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre and other officials, the Pentagon said Tuesday.The announcement came the same day that Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Donald Trump’s primary military adviser, met with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.They “exchanged views on challenges affecting the Caribbean region, including the destabilizing effects of illicit narcotics, arms, and human trafficking, and transnational criminal organization activities,” according to a summary released by Caine’s office.The U.S. military has built up its largest presence in the region in generations and has been attacking alleged drug-smuggling boats since early September. To date, the military, under Hegseth’s command, has carried out 21 known strikes on vessels accused of carrying drugs, killing at least 83 people.The actions are seen by many as a pressure tactic to get Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to step down. The visits by Hegseth and Caine this week come as Trump evaluates whether to take military action against Venezuela, which he has not ruled out despite raising the possibility of talks with Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S.The Trump administration added extra pressure by officially designating the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday, although the entity that the U.S. government alleges is led by Maduro is not a cartel per se.While a majority of Caribbean leaders have been muted in their response to the strikes on alleged drug boats, urging peace and dialogue, Persad-Bissessar has stood out for her public praise of the deadly attacks.In early September, she said she had no sympathy for drug traffickers, adding that “the U.S. military should kill them all violently.” Her remarks and support of the strikes have been condemned by some opposition leaders and regional officials.Amery Browne, Trinidad’s former foreign affairs minister, told the local newspaper Newsday that Persad-Bissessar’s stance is “reckless,” and that she has isolated herself from Caricom, a regional trade bloc.According to the Pentagon, Hegseth’s trip to the Dominican Republic will aim “to strengthen defense relationships and reaffirm America’s commitment to defend the homeland.”Meanwhile, Caine also used his time in the region to visit American troops in Puerto Rico and on at least one U.S. Navy ship, thanking service members for their service and sacrifice over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Pentagon said.Caine and Hegseth also visited the region in September, going to Puerto Rico after ships carrying hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived for what officials said was a training exercise.

    WASHINGTON —

    Top U.S. military officials are meeting leaders of Caribbean nations this week as the Trump administration has escalated its firepower in the region as part of what it calls a campaign against drug trafficking.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and meet Wednesday with the country’s top leaders, including President Luis Abinader, Minister of Defense Lt. Gen. Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre and other officials, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

    The announcement came the same day that Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Donald Trump’s primary military adviser, met with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

    They “exchanged views on challenges affecting the Caribbean region, including the destabilizing effects of illicit narcotics, arms, and human trafficking, and transnational criminal organization activities,” according to a summary released by Caine’s office.

    The U.S. military has built up its largest presence in the region in generations and has been attacking alleged drug-smuggling boats since early September. To date, the military, under Hegseth’s command, has carried out 21 known strikes on vessels accused of carrying drugs, killing at least 83 people.

    The actions are seen by many as a pressure tactic to get Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to step down. The visits by Hegseth and Caine this week come as Trump evaluates whether to take military action against Venezuela, which he has not ruled out despite raising the possibility of talks with Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S.

    The Trump administration added extra pressure by officially designating the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday, although the entity that the U.S. government alleges is led by Maduro is not a cartel per se.

    While a majority of Caribbean leaders have been muted in their response to the strikes on alleged drug boats, urging peace and dialogue, Persad-Bissessar has stood out for her public praise of the deadly attacks.

    In early September, she said she had no sympathy for drug traffickers, adding that “the U.S. military should kill them all violently.” Her remarks and support of the strikes have been condemned by some opposition leaders and regional officials.

    Amery Browne, Trinidad’s former foreign affairs minister, told the local newspaper Newsday that Persad-Bissessar’s stance is “reckless,” and that she has isolated herself from Caricom, a regional trade bloc.

    According to the Pentagon, Hegseth’s trip to the Dominican Republic will aim “to strengthen defense relationships and reaffirm America’s commitment to defend the homeland.”

    Meanwhile, Caine also used his time in the region to visit American troops in Puerto Rico and on at least one U.S. Navy ship, thanking service members for their service and sacrifice over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Pentagon said.

    Caine and Hegseth also visited the region in September, going to Puerto Rico after ships carrying hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived for what officials said was a training exercise.

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  • FBI investigates video urging US troops to defy illegal orders

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    A video urging U.S. troops to defy “illegal orders” has led to the FBI requesting interviews with the Democratic lawmakers involved, indicating an investigation may be underway. The lawmakers did not mention specific reasons for their comments in the clip, but it comes after the Trump administration ordered the military to blow up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, accusing them of smuggling drugs into the U.S., and the deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities.All six of the Democratic lawmakers in the video have served in the military or intelligence community.In the video, lawmakers said they needed troops to “stand up for our laws … our Constitution.” The Pentagon said Monday it was reviewing Senator Mark Kelly, who is in the video, for violating military law. President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition and said it is “punishable by death.”Senator Elissa Slotkin, one of six Democrats in the video, told reporters Tuesday this is a scare tactic by the president. The FBI declined to comment, but Director Kash Patel described the situation in an interview as an “ongoing matter.”Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    A video urging U.S. troops to defy “illegal orders” has led to the FBI requesting interviews with the Democratic lawmakers involved, indicating an investigation may be underway.

    The lawmakers did not mention specific reasons for their comments in the clip, but it comes after the Trump administration ordered the military to blow up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, accusing them of smuggling drugs into the U.S., and the deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities.

    All six of the Democratic lawmakers in the video have served in the military or intelligence community.

    In the video, lawmakers said they needed troops to “stand up for our laws … our Constitution.”

    The Pentagon said Monday it was reviewing Senator Mark Kelly, who is in the video, for violating military law. President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition and said it is “punishable by death.”

    Senator Elissa Slotkin, one of six Democrats in the video, told reporters Tuesday this is a scare tactic by the president.

    The FBI declined to comment, but Director Kash Patel described the situation in an interview as an “ongoing matter.”

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • Hegseth seeks briefing on Sen Mark Kelly ‘Don’t Give Up the Ship’ viral video

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    The Department of War released an update via X on Tuesday regarding “potentially unlawful conduct” exhibited by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in the viral video titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship” which critics claim encouraged treason from service members. 

    War Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded an update on the review by Dec. 10.

    “The Department of War recently received information regarding potentially unlawful comments made by CAPT (Ret) Mark E. Kelly in a public video, on or about November 18, 2025. I am referring this, and any other related matters, for your review, consideration, and disposition as you deem appropriate,” Hegseth wrote.

    “Please provide me a brief on the outcome of your review by no later than December 10, 2025,” his letter concluded.

    Hegseth addressed his letter to the Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan. Kelly served in the Navy as a captain before running for office.

    HEGSETH RIPS MARK KELLY’S POST ABOUT HIS SERVICE: ‘YOU CAN’T EVEN DISPLAY YOUR UNIFORM CORRECTLY’
     

    The Department of War received information regarding potentially unlawful comments made by Sen. Mark E. Kelly, D-Ariz. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    The Department of War and the Office of Kelly did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

    This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

    Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.

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  • US military could cut ties with Scouts

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    The U.S. Military could be preparing to sever ties with the Scouts, according to a leaked Pentagon memo. 

    U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to bring an end to the centuries-old partnership between the military and Scouting America because he believes the organization has developed a tendency to “attack boy-friendly spaces,” according to documents reportedly seen by NPR.

    A Department of Defense official told NPR the Pentagon would not comment on “leaked documents that we cannot authenticate and that may be predecisional.” Newsweek contacted the U.S. Department of Defense for further comment via email.  

    Why It Matters

    The U.S. military’s relationship with Scouting America (formerly Boy Scouts of America) is a long-standing association that has influenced youth leadership training and military recruitment. 

    The possible break stems from new policy directions within both organizations relating to inclusion, diversity, and shifting values, raising questions about the military’s approach to civic engagement and youth development at a time when both national security considerations and recruitment remain top priorities. 

    What To Know

    Documents obtained and reviewed by NPR indicate that Hegseth is advancing plans to end all Defense Department ties with Scouting America, citing misalignment with traditional military values.

    In a draft memo to Congress, not yet sent, Hegseth is reported to have criticized Scouting America for becoming “genderless” and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, arguing that Scouting America has shifted away from a “meritocracy which holds its members accountable to meet high standards.”

    The Department of Defense has supported the Scouts in various ways since formalizing assistance in 1937, including providing medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree and allowing Scouts to meet on military installations. 

    However, under Hegseth’s proposal, these supports—along with recruitment advantages for Eagle Scouts and the use of military resources at Scouting events—would end.

    The draft documents reveal concerns about the Jamboree, which attracts up to 20,000 scouts to a remote Virginia site, suggesting that sending personnel and equipment to support it would divert resources from border operations and protecting U.S. territory at a time of international security challenges and limited budgets. 

    A source familiar with the Pentagon documents told NPR the memo was prepared to notify Congress but stressed it had not yet been formally delivered. 

    What People Are Saying

    Scouting America said: “Scouting is and has always been a nonpartisan organization…Over more than a century, we’ve worked constructively with every U.S. presidential administration—Democratic and Republican—focusing on our common goal of building future leaders grounded in integrity, responsibility, and community service.” 

    Retired Army Staff Sergeant Kenny Green, a military parent of three Scouts who has relocated many times as a result of his work, told NPR: “We went from Louisiana to Alaska. From Alaska to Germany. From Germany to Texas…At every military base, there was a Scout troop that could help ease the transition to a new home…I can’t even say how vast their benefits are, especially for military families.” 

    Criticism of the proposed cut also comes from within the Pentagon. Navy Secretary John Phelan said in a memo viewed by NPR: “Passive support to Scouting America through access to military installations and educational opportunities serves as a crucial recruiting and community engagement tool for the [Navy]…Prohibition of access could be detrimental to recruitment and accession efforts across the department.”

    President Donald Trump, speaking at the 2017 Jamboree, previously lauded the Scouts, saying: “The United States has no better citizens than its Boy Scouts. No better.” 

    What Happens Next

    The move could disrupt not only the Scouts’ annual Jamboree but the broader pipeline of service-minded youth entering the U.S. armed forces. Planning for next summer’s Jamboree continues, but without clarity—uncertainty hangs over whether military support and access to installations will persist or cease by directive.

    The Pentagon said it is reviewing all partnerships to ensure they “align with the president’s agenda and advance our mission.”

    Congress could weigh in, given its legislative oversight and the statutory requirements around military support for scouting events.

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  • U.S. considers dropping leaflets in Venezuela as it ramps up pressure on Maduro, sources say

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    Officials in the Trump administration on Saturday discussed the possibility of dropping leaflets on Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas as it seeks to weaken the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    Among the potential avenues discussed regarding operations for Venezuela was dropping U.S. leaflets on Caracas as a kind of psychological warfare to pressure Maduro, multiple U.S. officials familiar with the talks told CBS News.

    The operation, which was not yet authorized, could possibly take place Sunday, the officials said, which is Maduro’s 63rd birthday.  

    The Washington Post was first to report on the proposed leaflet operation.     

    Over the past few months, the U.S. has ratcheted up the pressure on Maduro in multiple ways, including an extensive military buildup in the region, live fire exercises, and strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

    When asked Monday, President Trump said he wouldn’t rule out sending U.S. troops into Venezuela.

    “No, I don’t rule out that,” the president said. “I don’t rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela.”

    For his part, Maduro on the same day said he would be open to “face-to-face” discussions with Mr. Trump.

    Last month, Mr. Trump also confirmed that he has authorized the CIA to go into Venezuela and conduct covert operations.

    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he arrives for the projection of a biographical series at the National Theatre of Venezuela in Caracas on Nov. 22, 2025.

    Juan BARRETO /AFP via Getty Images


    The Pentagon has conducted at least 21 strikes since early September, killing at least 80 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the strikes are designed to target cartels and drug traffickers, although it has not provided evidence that the vessels struck so far were carrying drugs.

    There are currently about 15,000 U.S. troops in the region. A Navy official told CBS News last week that the U.S. had four military ships in the western Atlantic, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier, and three guided missile destroyers. It had another seven military ships in the Caribbean, the official said, which included two guided missile destroyers, two guided missile cruisers, an amphibious assault ship and two amphibious transport dock ships.

    There are also several dozen U.S. fighter jets stationed in Puerto Rico.

    Maduro, who has led Venezuela since 2013, faced an international outcry when he declared victory in Venezuela’s presidential elections in July 2024 despite results showing he had lost by a large margin to the opposition candidate.

    The U.S. is one of several nations that does not recognize him as Venezuela’s president. The Trump administration has accused him of operating a cartel that funnels drugs into the U.S., and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest. 

    Eleanor Watson and

    Charlie D’Agata

    contributed to this report.

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