(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MI) called out the Pentagon on Tuesday for an “unsettling trend” of pursuing policies that differ from those favored by President Donald Trump, while also criticizing the Department of Defense for not sharing information as quickly as it did during Trump’s first term.
Wicker’s complaints were reported by Punchbowl News congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio on Tuesday morning. The Mississippi conservative is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he said is running into roadblocks from the Pentagon.
“Members and staff of this committee have struggled to receive information from the policy office. And have not been able to consult in a meaningful way with either the shop on national defense strategy or the global posture review. This does not match our experience with the first Trump administration,” Wicker said, according to Desiderio.
Wicker added: “I have noticed an unsettling trend this year. At times, Pentagon officials have pursued policies that are not in accord with President Trump’s orders or seem uncoordinated within the administration.”
Zach Bradshaw, another journalist for Punchbowl, reported that Wicker said the “situation needs to improve if we are to craft the best defense policy.”
Wicker’s comments on Tuesday come less than a week after he, as well as SASC ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), criticized the Pentagon for not sharing information on the Trump administration’s strikes on suspected drug boats from Latin America.
Both Wicker and Reed last Friday shared two letters they had sent to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting more details on the strikes. The letters said the Pentagon is required by law to provide Congress with copies of “executive orders” on the attacks within 15 days; Hegseth did not acknowledge the letters or share documents on the strikes, the senators said.
Their frustration with Hegseth comes a few weeks after a number of media outlets — including the major TV networks, Fox News, and CNN — rejected Hegseth’s new restrictions on the press.<
President Trump has argued he is well within his right as commander-in-chief to strike suspected Latin American drug boats. He also blasted Colombian leader Gustavo Petro as a “thug” and “illegal drug dealer” who needed to stop complaining about the strikes, or else the U.S. would take “very serious action” against him.
