Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly caused panic within the Trump administration earlier this year after he halted multiple freight airlines transporting aid and weaponry to Ukraine, failing to inform the White House of this decision.
Hegseth's office ordered the airlines, which had been operating from the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a U.S. base in Qatar, to stop 11 flights carrying military aid destined for Ukraine, including artillery shells and other weaponry, Reuters reported.
Officials in the White House and elsewhere in Washington then began to receive agitated correspondence from their allies in Ukraine, questioning where the order to stop flights from the U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) came from, and if the flights would resume at all.
Flights resumed after a week, but top administration officials, including those working within the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department, did not know that was going to happen and did not have any answers for Ukrainian officials.
It was later discovered that the office of the defense secretary delivered the verbal order to halt aid flights to Ukraine, according to TRANSCOM records obtained by Reuters.
This incident occurred shortly after a meeting held by Trump at the Oval Office on January 30, which was attended by Hegseth and other national security officials. Sources present at this meeting told the outlet that the topic of Ukraine was discussed, adding that President Donald Trump did not order any official to withhold aid from the nation.
In fact, Trump was not aware that Hegseth ordered flights to Ukraine to be halted at all, according to sources familiar with the private White House discussions. However, when asked to comment on the issue, the White House stated that Hegseth had been following a directive from the executive branch of government.
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