The Illinois Democrat countered Hegseth's curious refusal to name Russia as the aggressor in the Ukraine war with his own work as a former Fox News host.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other allies of President Trump won't state a plain fact about the war. Politics has a way of making simple truths harder to tell.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz both refused to call Russia the aggressor in the Ukrainian war, in separate interviews three years after Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion.

In all, it was a bruising, 72-hour crash course in the geopolitical realities of a job that critics complain Mr. Hegseth, a 44-year-old former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, is unqualified to hold. Mr. Hegseth’s trip to Europe, his first overseas visit since being sworn in on Jan. 25, started off on an unusual note.

“Today, President Emmanuel Macron of France joined me in the Oval Office to speak to the G7 Summit,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The meeting was convened by Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, the current chair of G7, to acknowledge the Third Anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine War—Which would have never started if I was President.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and changes at the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s overseas trip started with heckling from ... the hapless Pentagon chief publicly said it was “unrealistic” to think Russia wouldn’t keep portions of Ukraine it took by force. He added that Ukrainian membership ...

heroically withstanding barbaric tactics and unspeakable violence from Russia.” “Secretary Hegseth’s recent diplomatic blunders make President Trump look weak, and undermine future ...

Hegseth, 44, demanded a proposal that would include annual 8% cuts to the Pentagon’s roughly $850 billion budget, according to a memo.

As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, the United States is ramping up efforts to broker a peace deal, but sharp divisions are emerging over how to approach Russia’s role in the conflict.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's attention-grabbing overseas debut may have irritated some key Republicans and alienated allies in Europe, where his statements on Ukraine and NATO went down like a lead balloon.

Democratic Senator Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, blasted the Trump administration this week for “caving” to “Putin’s demands” after Ukraine “fought tooth and nail for its very survival, heroically withstanding barbaric tactics and unspeakable violence from Russia.”