United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, failed to notify the White House before halting weapons shipments to Ukraine last week, according to five sources familiar with the matter.
CNN reported that the unexpected move triggered a wave of confusion within the administration, leaving officials scrambling to determine the rationale behind the decision and communicate it to both Congress and the Ukrainian government.
President Donald Trump, when questioned during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday about the pause, distanced himself from the decision.
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” he responded when pressed about who gave the order, adding only that the U.S. would continue supplying defensive aid to Ukraine.
The incident sheds light on what sources describe as a chaotic policy process inside the Trump administration, especially at the Department of Defense under Hegseth.
According to those familiar, this marks the second time in 2025 that Hegseth has unilaterally paused arms shipments to Ukraine, surprising top national security officials.
A similar halt occurred in February and was reversed shortly thereafter, much like the events that unfolded Monday evening when Trump declared the shipments would resume despite Hegseth’s earlier pause.
High-ranking officials, including U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as the national security adviser, were not informed ahead of the pause.
They reportedly learned about it through media reports, a senior administration official and two sources confirmed.
Responding to inquiries, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told CNN, “Secretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked whether Hegseth had alerted the President prior to authorizing the pause, said in a statement, “The Pentagon conducted a review to ensure all support going to all foreign nations aligns with America’s interests,” emphasizing that Trump “has made the decision to continue providing defensive weapons to Ukraine to help stop the killing in this brutal war, which the Pentagon has said they are actively working on.” She added, “The President has full confidence in the Secretary of Defense.”
Two sources attributed the miscommunication to Hegseth’s lack of a chief of staff or a trusted circle of advisers who might have encouraged better coordination with other branches of government.
After being made aware of the pause last week, Trump instructed Hegseth to resume at least part of the weapons shipments, particularly the delivery of Patriot air defense interceptor missiles, which play a vital role in shielding Ukrainian civilians from Russian air attacks.
A senior administration official said many of the munitions were already stationed in Poland and could be quickly sent to Kyiv.
These arms had been approved under the previous administration and were en route when the pause was implemented. During a Friday phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump reportedly minimized his involvement in the halt, according to CNN.
It wasn’t until late Monday night that the Pentagon officially confirmed it would resume the shipments under Trump’s orders, hours after the President publicly expressed the need for Ukraine to receive defensive weapons.
Reaffirming that stance on Tuesday, Trump said: “I will say this, the Ukrainians, whether you think it’s unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave, because somebody had to operate that stuff. And a lot of people I know wouldn’t be operating it, they wouldn’t have the courage to do it.”
According to two sources, Trump appears less inclined at this point to hand Russia a symbolic victory by withholding aid. His attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin has cooled recently, particularly as hopes for peace negotiations continue to fade.
“We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin,” Trump remarked on Tuesday. “You want to know the truth? It’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
A European official present at the NATO summit in the Netherlands last month said Trump’s growing discontent with Putin was evident and that it appeared the pause in shipments “genuinely did not originate” with him.
The decision to suspend arms shipments reportedly followed a request by Trump for Hegseth to assess U.S. weapons stockpiles.
That request was made during their NATO summit trip and stemmed from concerns about ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel, with Trump wanting assurance that U.S. forces were adequately equipped in case of escalation.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed last week that the department was conducting “a capability review … to ensure US military aid aligns with our defense priorities.”
However, three sources made clear that Trump never directed a pause in aid to Ukraine. That suggestion came from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who has expressed skepticism about continued large-scale military support for Ukraine.
“A Europe first policy is not what America needs in this exceptionally dangerous time. We need to focus on China and Asia – clearly,” Colby posted on X last year.
Sources said Colby presented his recommendations to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, who supported the idea due to ongoing concerns about sluggish replenishment rates in the U.S. defense industrial base.
Hegseth, interpreting the proposal as consistent with Trump’s “America First” agenda, gave the final approval.
After discovering the move, White House officials reportedly told Hegseth and the Pentagon they would temporarily support the decision publicly, but emphasized the need for them to brief Congress, who had also been left in the dark.
In conversations with congressional staff, Pentagon officials argued that the pause was due to shortages in U.S. military stockpiles. But two sources said Congress had not received any urgent documentation indicating critical shortfalls.
“Congress would be glad to work with DoD if credible evidence was presented that the Pentagon stockpiles were critically short, requiring them to take unilateral action like they did last week,” one source said.
While the Pentagon frequently seeks additional funding and authorization for arms procurement, “there have been no new urgent requirements submitted to Congress from DoD for any of these munitions,” the source added.
