Hegseth, Gabbard, Leavitt face the first major test with the Israel – Iran conflict

A trio of main officials of the Trump administration – the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and the press secretary of the White House Karoline Leavitt – are in the process of facing their first adult The foreign policy test in their high-level administrative roles after Israel has launched pre-empty strikes on Iran and President Donald Trump involving the United States in the conflict.

The trio went up to their roles with a widespread fanfare among many Maga Conservatives, although just months ago, well just months ago if their previous careers had prepared them for what was going to happen. The current flared tensions with the Islamic Republic could be the final arbitrator on which side was correct.

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth. (Fox News / The Will Cain Show)

“President Trump leads from the front, and he brought together a worldly classified class team that helped him make many foreign policy achievements this quarter,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly on Wednesday when asked the trio test on Iran. “The American people trust the president to make the right decisions that ensure them in security, and they have enabled their team to reach the moment and advance their foreign policy objectives.”

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth

Hegseth secretary was one of Trump’s most controversial candidates among criticisms, while Democratic legislators and left -wing experts slammed HegSeth as unqualified for the position.

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“This audience now seems to be an audience on the question of whether women are qualified or not in combat. And not whether you are qualified or not to be a defense secretary,” said the Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth during the HegSeth confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January. “And let me say that the American people need a defense secretary who is ready to lead the first day. You are not that person.”

“Is Pete Hegseth really the best we have to offer?” Asked the Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, member of the Committee classification committee.

President Donald Trump speaks during a round table. (Evan Vucci / The Associated Press)

Hegseth fought against the affirmations that he would reduce the previous standards for the Secretary of Defense and that his wishes to strengthen the military could be boastful once he was in the role and juggling the supervision of the whole army.

“As I said to many of you during our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this post, the main accusation he gave me was to bring warrior culture to the Ministry of Defense,” he said in his declaration of opening during his confirmation hearing. “He, like me, wants a pentagon laser to focus on war fighting, lethality, meritocracy, norms and preparation. That’s it. That’s my work.”

Hegseth was confirmed to this role after the vice-president JD Vance issued a revolutionary vote when the Republican senses Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell joined the Democrats to vote against confirmation.

Hegseth is a graduate of the Ivy League and former national guard officer who was deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay during his military career, which began in 2003. He is also a recipient of a handful of military prizes, including two bronze stars. He appeared on Wednesday before the Senate armed services committee and was in a hurry on the Israeli-Iranian conflict.

“They should have concluded an agreement,” said Hegseth.

“President Trump’s word means something – the world understands this,” HegSeth said, referring to Trump’s repeated pressure on Iran to conclude an agreement with the United States on his nuclear program while the conflict has evolved.

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“And at the Ministry of Defense, our work consists in staying ready and prepared with options. And that is precisely what we do,” said Hegseth.

He has not revealed whether the United States would help Israel in the current strikes on Iran, but the Pentagon is preparing options for Trump.

Any potential involvement of the United States in strikes could attract the country at war against Iran.

“I can do it, I may not be doing it,” said Trump on Wednesday to find out if he would order a strike on Iran. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Hegseth was one of Trump’s senior officials who joined Trump in the White House situation room as president and his team closely monitors the flared conflict.

TULSI Gabbard national intelligence director. (John McDonnell / The Associated Press)

TULSI Gabbard national intelligence director

National Intelligence Director Gabbard is another Trump official who faced an intense confirmation audience when criticism argued that she was not qualified for the role.

Gabbard is a former Democrat who served in the American Chamber representing Hawaii from 2013 to 2021, a former member of the Chamber’s Armed Services Committee and a War Veteran in Iraq. However, she had never occupied an official position in the intelligence community before being director of national intelligence.

Before his confirmation, Gabbard’s criticisms criticized him as a lack of qualifying for the role, questioning his judgment at a 2017 meeting with the dictator of the time, Bashar Assad, calling it sympathetic to Russia, and the warming of his previous favorable remarks linked to the old list of the National Security Agency Edward Snowden.

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“Those who oppose my appointment imply that I am faithful to something or to someone other than God, my own conscience and the constitution of the United States,” she said during her confirmation audience. “Accuse me of be Trump’s puppetPutin puppet, Assad puppet, puppet of Guru, Modi puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of being simultaneously the puppet of five different puppet masters. “”

She was finally confirmed during a vote of 52 to 48 years.

The smoke rises from the construction of Iranian state television after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2025. (Photo ap)

Gabbard’s March testimony before the Senate rejects concerns Iran Actively builds a nuclear weapon is back under the country’s microscope after Israel has launched pre -empty strikes on Iran. Israel’s strikes were in direct response to Israeli information showing that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a short time.

Trump was asked about Gabbard’s testimony when he returned to Washington on Monday evening from the G7 summit in Canada on Monday in Canada, and the president said he was not concerned about what Gabbard had to say during the previous testimony, arguing that he thought that Iran is about to build a nucle.

“You have always said that you don’t think Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon,” a journalist asked Trump on the Air Force One on Monday. “But how far do you personally think they had to get one?”

“Very close,” replied Trump.

“Because Tulsi Gabbard said in March that the intelligence community said Iran did not build a nuclear weapon,” said the journalist.

Trump retaliated: “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”

When Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, she made a statement on behalf of the intelligence community which included testimonies that Iran did not actively build a nuclear weapon.

“Iran’s cyber operations and capacities also have a serious threat to American networks and data,” Gabbard told the committee on March 26.

The intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran does not constitute a nuclear weapon, and the supreme chief Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” she said. She added that “Iran’s enriched uranium stock is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons”.

“Iran will probably continue the efforts to counter-Israel And press for the American military withdrawal from the region by helping, stopping and helping to reconstruct his loose consortium of terrorist actors sharing the same ideas, which he calls his axis of resistance, “she warned.

However, while the criticisms separated the past comments from Gabbard, the White House stressed that Gabbard and Trump are closely aligned on Iran.

A White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday afternoon that Trump and Gabbard were closely aligned and that the increased distinction between Gabbard’s Mars testimony and Trump’s remarks that Iran is “very close” to obtaining a nuclear weapon is one without difference.

The manager noted that Gabbard stressed in his March testimony that Iran had the resources to potentially build a nuclear weapon. Her testimony in March reflected information she received that Iran did not build a weapon at the time, but that the country could do it according to the resources it raised for such a company.

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. (Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images)

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt

Leavitt is the youngest The press secretary in the history of the United States, assuming the role at the age of 27.

Some liberal criticisms, such as Joy Behar from “The View”, tried to reduce her appointment when she was first exploited by Trump, and she has since emerged as a shooting brand from the Trump administration during her press points in the Routine White House.

Although Leavitt was massively congratulated by supporters of the president for his defense of the administration and the repetitive ardent exchanges with the left media during the information sessions, his mandate was massively focused on domestic issues.

President Donald Trump is monitoring the growing conflict between Israel and Iran. (Alex Brandon / The Associated Press)

Leavitt has maintained the nation up to date on issues such as mass deportation efforts, the continuous list of Trump decrees affecting the policies of transgender issues to electric vehicles, national tragedies such as the terrorist attack of Boulder targeting Jewish Americans and Trump’s broad tariff policy that affects foreign nations.

Although the administration has entered into a war that rages between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the current war in Israel after Hamas attacked the country in 2023, the Israeli-Iranian conflict provided Leavitt its first major international crisis which could include the involvement of the United States.

The highly anticipated Leavitt’s first long -awaited press briefing since Israel launched its preventive strikes is scheduled for Thursday.