U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland, U.S., July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer
President Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile strategy toward Iran is alarming even some top officials in his own administration’s Department of Defense, with one DoD official calling the president “a madman who can’t be trusted,” Raw America can reveal.
Both Republican leaders and generals have known and discussed the possibility of Trump considering using nuclear weapons against Iran for at least the last two months. One unnamed Pentagon official confided to Raw America that the president’s threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” which he posted to his Truth Social early last month, was seen as particularly alarming within the DoD.
“After what Trump said back in July, everyone should have known this is on the table,” the Pentagon official said. “What do you think he meant by that?”
The DoD official’s comments come just after former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted to her X account on Sunday that Trump was contemplating using nuclear weapons against Iran in recent strategy meetings, calling him “pure evil.” Greene lamented that despite Iran being “nowhere near creating a nuclear weapon,” the U.S. military nonetheless “killed their leaders and innocent little children in a school, and Iran has controlled the Strait of Hormuz ever since and punished the region for their part in it.”
”And now our government is the one actually discussing lowering the nuclear threshold in order to use nuclear weapons against Iran even though Trump claims he’s won the war like 40 times and says the U.S. controls the [Strait of Hormuz],” the former Georgia congresswoman wrote.
”Trump promised no more foreign wars, but may actually be the one who delivers a nuclear holocaust that would likely drag the entire world into major conflict, economic depression, and mass human suffering we’ve never seen in our lifetimes and maybe throughout history,” she added.
Joel Rubin, a former member of the State Department in the Barack Obama administration and a prominent Middle East expert, still doubts that Trump would actually push the button.
“I think that’s way off. It’d kill the oil there. No way. He needs to keep the oil companies happy,” Rubin said.
Rubin and others believe Trump is merely using the Nixon-esque style of negotiating known as “the madman strategy.” The 37th president of the United States employed it during the Vietnam War to appear so erratic that nothing could be ruled out, including the use of nuclear weapons.
“The problem with that strategy is that can actually destroy your credibility,” Rubin said.
While Nixon was unsuccessful with that strategy, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from relying on it, with several White House sources confiding to Raw America that Trump “seeming unstable could help spur the Iranians to negotiate.”
Trump’s recent decisions have spurred multiple Republicans in Congress to re-think their support of the Iran war, though most have refrained from publicly criticizing Trump. Republican consensus seems to have centered on naming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a convenient scapegoat for the war the longer it drags on.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is among those who have said publicly that they’ve “lost confidence” in Hegseth, who insiders say has been keeping a “lower profile than usual” in the halls of the Pentagon. One source said Hegseth “doesn’t even preen in front of the mirror like he used to.”
Rubin said the administration’s credibility is on “a rapid slide downward,” noting that Trump has since threatened to bomb a key ally in Oman, while publicly distancing the U.S. from South Korea.
“NATO has been getting it for years,” Rubin said. “He’s maneuvering tactically every day which makes it impossible for our allies to keep up. The problem with Trump is that it’s all so personal and not national.”
The lack of strategy has prompted several anti-Trump Republican groups to gain some traction among the traditionally Republican base. Former Sen. John Danforth’s (R-Mo.) “Our Republican Legacy” (ORL) project is among those claiming that “Trump is in the Past.”
Chris Vance — a senior advisor to ORL and former Republican elected official in Washington state — said Republicans are “seriously searching for sanity” and trying to shake off the Trump stigma. But given that Trump has had the party firmly in a vicegrip for the past decade, that’s easier said than done.
“Those remaining with him know better,” Vance said. “They definitely know he’s dangerous, but because of greed or personal interest they aren’t going to come forward. Those who have are those he’s pushed out of office.”
“Trump is incredibly and increasingly insulated,” Vance continued. “There are Republicans on the outside who are trying to effect change, but those left inside are as delusional as he is.”
Pentagon officials have largely avoided speaking out against the war as Hegseth has indiscriminately fired several generals, but Raw America’s Pentagon source said the pressure against Hegseth is “mounting.”
“We could see movement on that front against Hegseth sooner rather than later, particularly if the current negotiations fail to produce any tangible results,” the source said.
Insiders say the lack of confidence in Hegseth, along with the rapid depletion of America’s missile arsenal, both contribute to a growing unease that will only “ease somewhat” if Hegseth is forced out.
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Get him OUT of the office. NOW!!
Stop this maniac!!!!