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If the Pakistan-brokered Iran ceasefire had not been announced shortly before Donald Trump’s deadline that included a threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would have been confronted by a revolt inside the Pentagon, according to new reporting.That is according to MS NOW’s David Rohde, who told “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire that a handful of Pentagon lawyers were committed to refusing to approve some of the targets the White House wanted to destroy.Speaking moments after the former Fox News personality-turned Pentagon head once again battled with reporters at a press availability, Rohde was asked about the aftermath of the ceasefire with Iran.After noting that Vice President JD Vance was tangentially involved in ceasefire negotiations, he veered off and told Lemire, “And just my last thought: this war was a test of how we wage war as a democracy. We are a democracy. And I feel like as a journalist, that is our, that's my core belief and it's the most defining trait we have. So I completely agree with you in terms of Congress not playing a role.”"We were going to take out all these bridges and that somehow the regime was profiting from bridges and power stations,” he continued. “You know, I had military, former military lawyers saying they were talking to current military lawyers, and these lawyers were going to resist inside. They were not going to sign off on a target list that involved war crimes.”“And I can just tell you from embeds and my own time in the military and embeds, and the people I've known in the military, the United States military does not intentionally commit war crimes, period,” he added. “It does not engage in that kind of war fighting; That's one of our qualities as a democracy. And so this administration was testing that and flirting with that –– we have killed civilians. There's no question we've made huge mistakes in war. But I just, you know, so I don't know how we did as a democracy.” - YouTube youtu.be

Fox News host Lawrence Jones pointed out that Iran achieved a ceasefire without giving in to many of President Donald Trump's demands."You said it perfectly, talking about the Iranian demands," Jones told Ainsley Earhardt on Wednesday. "All of them, all 10 of them, are non-starters for the United States.""But I will say that the president's demands, we have not reached any of those objectives," he continued. "But he said that we want to dismantle all major nuclear facilities. That has not happened. The end of uranium enrichment on the soil, they're still wrenching. The transfer of the enriched uranium stockpiles out of Iran; that hasn't happened.""The acceptance of intrusive international inspections. They're still not willing to do that. And they have not suspended their ballistic missiles program. They're still firing them off to stop the production of the long-range missiles."Jones questioned whether Trump had a plan to pressure the Iranians during the ceasefire."The question is, is the president using this two weeks to give our soldiers a break, a rest to see if we can get this ultimately done?" he asked. "We'll see."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insulted and cut off ABC News reporter Luis Martinez during a press briefing on Wednesday morning after the Senior Pentagon journalist put Gen. Dan Caine on the spot with a probing question about the Iran war.After earlier calling another reporter “rude” for attempting to ask a question during the press availability, Hegseth broke from his usual habit of calling on friendly reporters from conservative outlets to allow Martinez to ask the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the Iran ceasefire.“First, a question to the general,” the ABC journalist began. “Sir, in your personal opinion, were the risks of the Strait of Hormuz being closed because of the conflict? Were they mitigated early enough in part of the decision-making process that led up to the decision to take action against Iran? And in your opinion, is Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz? We just heard the secretary say that Iran is letting ships through.” He continued by asking, “In your opinion, sir, how can the US ensure safe passage?”Speaking to Hegseth, he asked, “And also, you said earlier that the president ‘chose mercy,’ but you yourself had said three weeks ago that we will give no quarter; no quarter to Iranian troops. How do you correlate those two?”Hegseth shot back, ”I try to be nice up here, but you did listen to what I said, right? I laid out the objectives. We believe we accomplished them. And it's a historic military victory. And President Trump has the option, as the commander in chief, to compel an adversary to the table, which is precisely what he did.”Given his chance to answer, Caine replied, “There's a lot in that question. I'd love to take that offline and answer it, but it was... I'm struggling to find exactly what your question was. And that's probably me, not you. Okay?”As Martinez attempted to re-frame his question, Hegseth sneered, “It was an indictment framed as a question. So you're forgiven for not understanding,” to Caine before turning to another reporter with “Go ahead.”As Martinez protested, Hegseth snapped, “No, you've had your chance.”In a following segment, MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire called the back and forth a “complete meltdown” by Hegseth. - YouTube youtu.be

Trump administration officials are scrambling to find “positive” media coverage of President Donald Trump regarding his decision to accept a tentative ceasefire agreement with Iran, with one senior official fearing the president’s hatred of “being humiliated” may lead him to reignite the conflict and spark an “Iran-war apocalypse,” Zeteo reported on Wednesday.“A problem is Donald Trump hates being humiliated,” a senior Trump administration official told Zeteo, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “He is going to see coverage that he was beat by the Iranians. I am expecting that to change his thinking.”The senior official said that they and other aides were working to “get a bunch of ‘positive’ media coverage” of Trump “to soothe his ego,” Zeteo reported. The official added that they also planned to engage MAGA influencers and other right-wing media figures to help shape favorable coverage of Trump’s decision to halt plans to destroy Iran’s entire civilization.Portraying Trump’s agreement to a ceasefire as a victory, however, will be “hard to support,” Zeteo argued, given that the conflict has sent prices soaring across the globe, resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, and failed to topple Iran’s government – a frequently but inconsistently cited objective of the war.“The attack on Iran was based on lies, it was completely unnecessary, and no one wanted it – other than Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly sold the U.S. president on a rosy and deeply misguided vision of how the war would play out, per a deep dive from the New York Times on Tuesday,” Zeteo’s report reads. “Netanyahu got to brief Trump in the White House Situation Room, and Trump opted not to sit at the head of the table as he did so.”

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