Welcome back to The Red Letter.
Steve Schmidt joined me for a brutally candid conversation about my latest reporting on the quiet panic spreading through Republican circles over Pete Hegseth and Trump’s war. Publicly, they’re staying in line. Privately, I’m hearing something very different from Capitol Hill, the administration, and K Street: regret, alarm, and what one source summed up as “zero confidence” in Hegseth.
Schmidt was unsparing. He argued that the Republicans now expressing buyer’s remorse knew exactly who Hegseth was when they voted for him and are now watching the consequences play out in real time. We talked about why Hegseth’s bluster is not calming fears, but feeding the sense that no one is really in control at a dangerously volatile moment.
From there, we pulled back to the bigger picture: troop movements, no clear strategy, no convincing public case for war, and a president who appears to be making it up as he goes. Schmidt laid out why this feels less like command than improvisation and why that could become both a military and political disaster.
Watch the full conversation on Substack for the unfiltered version of what Republicans are saying when the cameras are off. Beneath the loyalty and talking points, there is fear, finger-pointing, and a growing sense that this war could spiral politically as fast as it already has militarily.
Thank you John H, Sarah E. Burr, Abi Baker, Nancy Werner Mosley, Stacy💫🧿♓️, and many others for tuning into my live video with Steve Schmidt! Join me for my next live video in the app.
