On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a program to test testosterone levels in troops. On Monday, it was a new task force to prosecute “leakers” of sensitive government information.
And last Friday, it was the lifting of disciplinary reviews of eight Apache helicopter pilots who flew low over a crowded area of the South Carolina coastline on the Fourth of July.
“We’ll fix this,” Mr. Hegseth posted on social media. “Carry on, Patriots.”
During the past week, Mr. Hegseth has spoken forcefully about a wide range of topics. But on one issue he has not said much: the new escalation in the war against Iran.
In fact, in the days since the collapse of a fragile truce, the Pentagon has provided little information about the American military strategy after nearly five months of war.
President Trump, on the other hand, has frequently made public remarks on war.
“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight, we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow, and there’s not a damn thing they can do about it,” he said in an interview with the radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this week. “They have nothing. They have nothing going other than they have big mouths.”
U.S. and Iranian forces continued attacking on Thursday for a sixth straight day.
U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday that it had conducted “an evening wave” of strikes against Iran, bombing command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities and coastal surveillance facilities “to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten innocent mariners crewing commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
The update follows a familiar playbook of strike announcements, which have included bare-bones descriptions of missiles fired at various targets in Iran, often accompanied by videos and photos of U.S. troops and hardware in the Middle East.
When American troops are at war, the Pentagon has traditionally held a regular pace of news briefings. During the first five weeks of the 2003 Iraq war, for example, the Pentagon held more than 30 press briefings featuring various high-ranking officials, according to an analysis by Medill News Service.
In comparison, the Pentagon held eight press briefings during the first six weeks of the Iran war.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, said Central Command had provided “comprehensive, real-time updates to the world on the United States’ strikes and operations in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.”
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have been constantly providing updates directly to the media and the American people online, delivering clear, unfiltered insight into our objectives and decisive actions,” Mr. Parnell said in a statement.
The last major Pentagon briefing on the war was in early May, when Mr. Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to reporters about Project Freedom, an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran essentially shuttered after the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on Feb. 28.
“What we’re demonstrating with Project Freedom is they don’t control the strait,” Mr. Hegseth said then of Iran.
(Mr. Trump abandoned the effort in less than 48 hours after Saudi Arabia, fearing Iranian retaliation, refused to allow U.S. forces to use Saudi airspace for the mission.)
The Strait of Hormuz remains essentially closed.
Since then, there have been no major Pentagon news briefings about the war. Mr. Hegseth and General Caine appeared before House and Senate committees later in May to discuss the Pentagon budget, and they fielded questions about Iran from some lawmakers.
“Our military objectives have been clear the whole time,” General Caine replied when lawmakers pressed him and Mr. Hegseth on their plans to end the war.
He described targeting Iran’s ballistic missile systems and military industrial base. And he praised U.S. troops involved in the war.
But he had less to say about the broader U.S. military strategy.
