Trump may be preparing to throw another top official under the bus: insider

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 27, 2026.

Former Republican strategist Sarah Longwell believes President Donald Trump could sacrifice Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as criticism mounts over his disastrous war with Iran.

Speaking with Ezra Klein in a New York Times interview, Longwell says that Trump may eventually need someone in his administration as the sacrificial lamb over the public anger over the most unpopular war in US history that has sent prices skyrocketing.

"I do think that Donald Trump needs somebody to take the fall for the war," Longwell said, adding: "My guess is that Pete Hegseth goes, but nobody buys that," she added.

Klein noted that Hegseth has enthusiastically taken ownership of the war but questioned whether the public would accept him as the person ultimately responsible for it. Longwell suggested Trump's continued support for the defense secretary is due to appreciating him as a cheerleader.

“I have no idea why he’s still there. He shouldn’t be,” she said. She also criticized Hegseth's leadership style as "preposterous," criticizing his plans for the live execution of the Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, his transphobic language, and his focus on “fatties, beardos and weirdos.”

The interview centered around Longwell's extensive focus groups with Americans who voted for Trump in 2024.

She said Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war have been the focal point of contention with MAGA voters because they are directly connected to the president’s decisions and can’t be blamed on the previous administration in a way that would convince voters.

Longwell explained that the MAGA voters backed him believing that he would lower prices and not involve America in foreign wars. But instead, he left them facing high gas prices, more expensive household bills, and a war that doesn’t have an end date.

She said some supporters initially expected the Iran operation to follow the pattern of the administration's intervention in Venezuela, where U.S. forces quickly nabbed Nicolás Maduro without casualties.

"I thought it was going to be like Venezuela," she said voters have told her.

Despite the fighting continuing, Trump repeatedly claimed it would be over quickly, which also made it harder for his voters to separate the president from the consequences of his policies, she argued.

Longwell also described a growing split between Trump loyalists and the “America First” faction that includes the likes of Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who split from the president over the Iran War among other White House decisions.

For those voters, opposition to the Iran war is about American military personnel dying in a foreign war along with the rising cost of living that reminds them of his failed promises.

Whether Hegseth ends up being the sacrificial lamb is yet to be seen, but Longwell believes that the political responsibility is unlikely to disappear with him.

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