The Illinois Democrat countered Hegseth's curious refusal to name Russia as the aggressor in the Ukraine war with his own work as a former Fox News host.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other allies of President Trump won't state a plain fact about the war. Politics has a way of making simple truths harder to tell.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz both refused to call Russia the aggressor in the Ukrainian war, in separate interviews three years after Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion.

In all, it was a bruising, 72-hour crash course in the geopolitical realities of a job that critics complain Mr. Hegseth, a 44-year-old former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, is unqualified to hold. Mr. Hegseth’s trip to Europe, his first overseas visit since being sworn in on Jan. 25, started off on an unusual note.

“Today, President Emmanuel Macron of France joined me in the Oval Office to speak to the G7 Summit,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The meeting was convened by Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, the current chair of G7, to acknowledge the Third Anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine War—Which would have never started if I was President.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and changes at the Pentagon.

It’s time to end the needless war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia has a chance to be a peacemaker by negotiating an end to the conflict.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s overseas trip started with heckling from ... the hapless Pentagon chief publicly said it was “unrealistic” to think Russia wouldn’t keep portions of Ukraine it took by force. He added that Ukrainian membership ...

Hegseth, 44, demanded a proposal that would include annual 8% cuts to the Pentagon’s roughly $850 billion budget, according to a memo.