Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on U.S. strikes launched against Iran-backed Houthis, Trump's letter to Iran about the country's nuclear program and allocating an increase in defense spending. #FoxNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00And we begin this Sunday morning with President Trump's new message to Iran, with the commander-in-chief
00:05ordering a powerful and deadly attack against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen over
00:11the weekend.
00:12Multiple rebels dead after the strikes hit the intended targets in Yemen's capital city
00:17on Saturday.
00:18With President Trump riding on truth social, the Houthis have waged an unrelenting campaign
00:23of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American ships, aircraft, and drones.
00:29Your attacks must stop starting today, and if they don't, hell will rain down upon you
00:34like nothing you have ever seen before, writes the president.
00:38Trump also sending a direct message to Iran, warning the Iranians not to support terrorist
00:43proxies.
00:44The president following up after breaking news on this program last week, that he sent
00:49a letter to the supreme leader of Iran, asking to open up talks regarding Iran's nuclear
00:54ambitions.
00:56I've written him a letter saying, I hope you're going to negotiate, because if we have to
01:03go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing for them.
01:06You wrote a letter to the Khomeini, when did you send the letter?
01:11Yesterday.
01:12And you said you better negotiate, or we want you to negotiate?
01:14I didn't say you better, I said I hope you're going to negotiate, because it's going to
01:17be a lot better for Iran.
01:20And I think they want to get that letter.
01:23The other alternative is we have to do something, because you can't let them have a nuclear
01:26weapon.
01:30Those comments sparking a response to the interview from Iran last weekend, with the
01:34supreme leader saying Iran would not be bullied, writing, the insistence of some bullying governments
01:39on negotiations is not aimed at resolving issues, but rather at asserting dominance
01:44and imposing their demands.
01:46The Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly not accept their demands, writes the Ayatollah
01:51Khomeini.
01:52Joining me now with more on the Yemeni attack, Iran and the president's agenda, is the nation's
01:57secretary of defense, Pete Hegzad.
01:59Mr. Secretary, great to see you this morning.
02:01Thank you for being here.
02:02Can you tell us how it all went down on Saturday?
02:05Well, it all went down because an era of peace through strength is back.
02:10Just like in his first term, President Trump had to deal with the weakness of President
02:14Obama and get rid of ISIS, and he did it more quickly than anybody else.
02:18We're sitting on four years of deferred maintenance from Joe Biden, where in particular, when
02:23you talk about the Houthis, they were allowed for over a hundred times to shoot at US ships,
02:29to shoot at commercial shipping.
02:31Four months ago, when we sent a ship through, it was shot at 17 times.
02:34Ships haven't been able to go through for over a year without being shot at.
02:39Freedom of navigation is basic.
02:40It's a core national interest.
02:42President Trump has said, we will restore that, and we will be unrelenting.
02:46I want to be very clear.
02:48This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence.
02:53The minute the Houthis say, we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your
02:57drones, this campaign will end.
02:59But until then, it will be unrelenting.
03:02We got the reports last night, Maria.
03:05The Houthi capital felt like an earthquake.
03:08Dozens and dozens of precision heavy munitions dropping precisely on the targets that we
03:13wanted to hit, sending a very clear message.
03:16And the message is clear to Iran as well.
03:18And the president said it in his truth.
03:20Your support of the Houthis needs to end immediately.
03:25We will hold you accountable as the sponsor of this proxy.
03:29And I echo his statement.
03:31We will not be nice about it.
03:32This is not the Biden administration.
03:34The message is clear.
03:36We will come after the Houthis until they stop shooting at our ships, and the Iranians
03:40better stay out of it.
03:41And there are so many implications to this.
03:43I remember last year when this was happening, basically every day or every other day that
03:49our ships would get harassed by these rebels.
03:53And what ended up happening, from an economic perspective as well, many commercial ships
03:58were afraid to even go into that route in the Red Sea.
04:01They were going around the horn and it was costing much more money, sending oil prices
04:06higher because it was much more expensive for the longer travel.
04:10So it's not just a national security issue, but an economic one as well.
04:14A hundred percent.
04:16And the president understands that.
04:18Global shipping, global commerce, when it's threatened by effectively pirates and piracy
04:24and you have to divert and go an extra two weeks costing millions and then eventually
04:29billions of dollars, you're being held hostage by a terrorist organization.
04:34Remember, the Biden administration took off the foreign terrorist organization designation
04:39of the Houthis.
04:40President Trump restored it.
04:42We're squeezing them economically.
04:44We are pounding them militarily.
04:45By the way, to the Houthis, this isn't a one night thing.
04:48This will continue until you say we're done shooting at ships.
04:52We're done shooting at assets.
04:53We don't want a long, limited war in the Middle East.
04:56We don't care what happens in the Yemeni civil war.
04:59This is about stopping the shooting at assets in that critical waterway to reopen freedom
05:06of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States.
05:10And Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long.
05:12They better back off.
05:13And enabling the Houthis, but also Hamas and Hezbollah.
05:17Secretary, assess the capability and the capacity today of these Iranian proxies.
05:23I'm talking about Hezbollah having become weakened in the last several months.
05:28Hamas weakened as a result of the Israeli strikes.
05:31What can you tell us about the capacity of these Iranian proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and
05:38now the Houthis?
05:39What is their state today?
05:40Well, Maria, Iran is in a very weakened state.
05:44You mentioned it, Hezbollah.
05:45You mentioned it, Hamas.
05:46You look at what happened in Syria with the collapse of that regime, which was a client
05:50state of Iran.
05:52And ultimately, a lot of their insurgent groups in Iraq have pulled back as well.
05:57But it doesn't mean they still don't have the desire.
06:00Their air defenses are weakened.
06:02And that's why they're in a position where they're supporting groups like the Houthis,
06:04because they, in some ways, have to move to other options to try to agitate and instigate
06:10in the region.
06:11This is a critical moment for them.
06:13And the president said it on your program.
06:14He said it very clearly.
06:16They should—they need to—they will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
06:20We hope they do so, that we give it up peaceably through negotiations.
06:25The president has laid out the trajectory for that, because the alternative doesn't
06:30look good for anybody.
06:31I feel like we've been hearing that Iran is close to having a nuclear weapon.
06:35We're a month away, two months away.
06:37We've been hearing this for years.
06:39Realistically speaking, Secretary, how close is Iran from developing a nuclear weapon,
06:44in your view?
06:45Well, that's something that's classified, something we guard very closely, we watch
06:49very closely.
06:51And that's why the president has such urgency on this, why he's leading on this.
06:55Nobody wants a military option as it pertains to Iran.
06:58So he is through maximum pressure, just as he did in his first administration.
07:03Maximum pressure banked up the Iranians.
07:05Well, under Joe Biden, what happened?
07:06They took off that maximum pressure, and groups like the Houthis were awash in cash.
07:12Then they got arrogant, started shooting at our ships.
07:15We look weak.
07:16Not anymore.
07:17Not under President Trump.
07:18That will stop.
07:19The Houthis shooting at our ships will stop.
07:21Iran must get that clear message and negotiate the end of their pursuit for nuclear weapons.
07:28Because as I mentioned, President Trump has said clearly, they will not get a bomb.
07:33And I know that the Department of Defense sent a letter to Chairman Rogers recently
07:39about this 8% budget relook that you have called for, Secretary.
07:44And I want to get your take on that, because President Trump was very clear with me last
07:48week.
07:49He is not cutting defense spending.
07:51Here's the president with me last week, right here.
07:55You said you wanted to do the Golden Dome.
07:57You've got a lot of ideas for America.
07:59But then, earlier, you said you wanted to cut a trillion dollars in defense spending,
08:03right?
08:04I didn't say I was going to.
08:05So I was like, which is it?
08:06Are you cutting defense spending, or are you building us up?
08:08I never said defense spending.
08:09OK, because I think you were talking about denuclearization, and that's where the cutting
08:13of the spending came in.
08:15I never said cut.
08:17Not in these days.
08:18I'd love to cut defense spending, but not now.
08:21Because you have China, you have Russia, you have a lot of problems out there.
08:26So Secretary, the letter that was sent to Chairman Rogers was talking about the fiscal
08:31year 26 budget request, perhaps incorporating that 8% decline there.
08:36If you're looking at an increase in defense spending, Secretary, how do you allocate that?
08:41Where are the needs in our military?
08:42I know we don't have enough ships, and the Navy in China is actually dominating us when
08:47it comes to the number of ships.
08:49But how do you allocate that increase in defense spending?
08:52Ships, ship buildings, long-range munitions, hypersonics, long-range drones, Golden Dome,
08:59Southern Border.
09:00The president has laid out very clearly his agenda to rebuild the U.S. military.
09:04He did it in his first term.
09:06He's going to do it again.
09:07This 8% has been highly mischaracterized, Maria.
09:10It's not a cut.
09:11It's a reallocation away from Biden priorities, toward Green New Deal stuff, toward President
09:16Trump priorities.
09:18So we have revived the warrior ethos inside the military.
09:21We're reestablishing deterrence.
09:23And per the president's direction, we are going to rebuild the military.
09:26You're going to see historic investment in the weapons and modernization required to
09:31stand up to our enemies.
09:33President Trump is committed to that.
09:34He's asked me to be a part of it.
09:36We're going to work with Capitol Hill to do it.
09:38But we're going to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars, Maria.
09:41We're going to pass an audit.
09:43We're going to work with Doge.
09:44We're going to find, there's plenty of waste, fraud, and abuse in the DOD, and we're going
09:47to find it.
09:48At the same time, we're going to reinvest overwhelmingly in systems and rebuild this
09:53military because our kids and grandkids require it, and President Trump's leading the way.
09:57This is very important clarity that you just gave us.
09:59This is a reallocation, not a decline.
10:01Secretary, it's great to see you this morning.
10:03Thank you, sir.
10:04Thank you, Maria.
10:05I'm Steve Ducey.
10:06I'm Brian Kilmeade.
10:07And I'm Ainsley Earhart.
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