Donald Trump stood beside Pete Hegseth at a roundtable in Memphis on 23 March 2026 and, in front of cameras and reporters, publicly credited his Defence Secretary as the first person in the room to push for going to war with Iran.
The remarks, delivered at a Memphis Safe Task Force roundtable at the Tennessee Air National Guard Armory, came as Operation Epic Fury entered its fourth week and grew increasingly difficult to defend politically. The timing was loaded.
