Top U.S. Commanders Leak Explosive Pentagon Documents
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A top-secret Pentagon document, the Secretary of Defense Order Book (SDOB), leaked to the Washington Post, revealing that leading U.S. military officials—including Navy Admiral Coddle, Air Force generals, and joint command leaders—strongly oppose President Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to continue a large-scale war in Iran. They warn such operations are unsustainable, risking the erosion of U.S. military readiness and national security. The SDOB, typically released monthly, outlines military readiness and includes explicit non-concurrence with current and future strategies. The Pentagon responded by attacking the Post, calling the leak a criminal breach and accusing it of spreading misinformation. However, reporters like Dan Lemuth and Alex Horton assert that independent journalism is vital when government officials withhold critical military assessments. A deeper scandal emerged: the Pentagon has quietly hired conservative social media influencers—such as Data Republican (Jenica Pounds), Kurt Schickler, and Rob Manus—as special government employees without public disclosure. These individuals, many with large followings, are now seen as state-backed propagandists promoting the Trump administration’s agenda. Their roles include conducting ideological reviews at military colleges and attacking journalists. This reveals a troubling pattern of politicized military leadership, suppressed dissent, and the weaponization of media influence, raising serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and the integrity of the military and defense institutions.
this was a massive leak folks and the Trump regime is losing it. The Secretary of Defense Order book leaked to the Washington Post and it is clear that our top generals and admirals have been warning Trump and Hegsith about this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran. In the Secretary of Defense Order book, top military generals and admirals stated that they quote, do not concur and quote with Hegsith and Trump's plans currently and going forward as it relates to this catastrophic and unlawful war. This was in the August Secretary of Defense Order book, a highly classified document that the Washington Post got its hands on. It's like the Pentagon papers again if you will. Now Sean Parnell, one of the chief spokespeople over at the Defense Department put out the following message attacking the Washington Post and their reporters. Publishing highly classified assessments from the Secretary's Order book is a crime the Pentagon is saying. It's a betrayal of the force and much of what they're publishing is inaccurate. Of course, we demand candid military advice. Non-concurse are standard. Really, you think non-concurse are standard when you have many of our top generals and admirals saying they do not concur with the overall strategy regarding the catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran. I understand maybe some non-concurse on smaller or subsidiary issues, but on the overall planning of the war, Sean Parnell, he goes on to say non-concurse are standard. The Secretary sees them constantly. Well, maybe if he's seeing them constantly, maybe that's not a good thing. He goes on to say, "That's how you run a real military. We are in great shape around the world. This story isn't about readiness. It's TDS and PDS. They hate President Trump. They go Trump derangement syndrome and Secretary Hegseth. Pete Hegseth derangement syndrome. More than they love America." Really? Because it seems that our top generals and admirals are saying that this war is absolutely catastrophic for our country and for our service members. Dan Lemuth from the Washington Post then responded to Sean Parnell at the Pentagon and said, "Fack check. Independent journalism is not a crime. It's also especially important at a time when government officials are withholding key details and concerns about a war being fought on behalf of the American people with their tax payer dollars." Lemuth also points out that you have again top admirals like Caudel, top generals like Gringo Witch, Donovan, and Poporo who have come out with this non-concur against Trump and Hegseth, catastrophic war in Iran, the current plan, and the future planning. These top military leaders are against. Notably, all of these top mega-influencers started attacking Dan Lemuth and all of the Washington Post reporters who were also responsible for publishing the Secretary of Defense Order book. But then there was a twist that I'm going to talk about in this video as well. Dan Lemuth and other reporters at the Washington Post were ready. You see, they were working on a story that showed how the Pentagon has been hiring all of these mega-influencers as special government employees without disclosing it publicly and these mega-influencers have not been disclosing it publicly and they've been hired to basically do the propaganda for the regime. In other words, these mega-influencers that you see all over X and social media, they are feds. They are basically the deep state. They're secretly special government employees. They're being paid by taxpayers apparently and they're spewing the regime propaganda and they're acting like they're journalists, but they work as feds right now and you can see some of these people here like Kurt Schickler and cynical Publius and Rob Manus and this data Republican account. I'm going to go over this in a moment. We're going to tie this all together with a ribbon transparency calling out these mega-influencers. But first, I want to give a hat tip to the Washington Post reporter Alex Horton and Tara Kopp for breaking the story about the Defense Secretary Order book. Military leaders ward Hegsith against extending Iran war operations. A recent classified assessment advised that prolonged large-scale operations in the Middle East risk weakening US capabilities elsewhere. Several US military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Hegsith that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the US homeland, according to people familiar with a recent assessment prepared for the Pentagon Chief. The warnings detailed for Hegsith by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing US operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America appear in the August 14th edition of the Secretary of Defense Order's Book, the SDOB. These people said they described the assessment to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because the document is classified. The SDOB typically produced twice monthly outlines the worldwide availability of US warships, aircraft, personnel and weapon systems. It reflects the president's priorities for the force, which are carried out by the Defense Secretary and includes insights from the military's top generals and admirals that inform the directives the Pentagon issues. And so there you had the top military generals and admirals warning about the catastrophic war and saying we don't concur with the plans of Pete Hegsith. In addition, when you go through this SDOB, you can see chief of naval operations admiral Darryl Coddle, he says that he's deeply concerned about the lack of forecasted end date to operations against and around Iran. It's proved troublesome for efforts to sustain Iran-related operations that have now gone on for six months. Now this also coincides with that powerful report by the Guardian, which we discussed, which talks about how the Navy has run out of money and it's so bad that people and service members and contractors who work within the Navy and for the Navy and some of our sailors, they're not getting their payroll right now. They're not getting their checks. Payroll money is being diverted to combat operations because the Navy has run out of money. That is bad, bad right there. So that brings me to the next point right here. These MAGA influencers who all that once started to swarm and attack the Washington Post and they do this in general. They swarm and attack anybody who's critical of the Trump regime and who exposes what the Trump regime is doing. People like data Republican right here and data Republican, I'll tell you who she is in a moment, goes for generals analysis is not the important point here. The article says that the information comes from the SDOB. As the article explains, the SDOB is classified and lays out the worldwide availability of warships, aircrafts, weapons systems, personnel. That includes which leaders non-concurred, which you are amplifying. This is one of the most serious leaks I have ever seen and you are using this to score partisan points against Texas. You and your military Twitter journalist fear spent the whole week hammering a doge affiliated analyst for refusing to leak sensitive documents, accusing her of violating ethics. She's referring to herself as her, accusing her. So are you even writing this? 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Pound said she went into this to collaborate on Cuba to provide information to support the regime wanting to invade Cuba, but then Pound's panicked because she believed that the Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers was trying to entrap her by giving her classified information that she would not be allowed to report on. And so then this Jessica Pounds, this Data Republicans account, called out Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers and said that she thought she was being framed to which the Undersecretary of State who reports directly to Rubio says, "LOL, these are my text messages and documents. The markings are FOIA redactions required even for voluntary disclosure to prove this is in a trap. I will happily disclose the documents myself." So then the Data Republican account had to admit that she was a government employee and she said, "I began working as a special government employee for the Department of War in July to serve my country in a more hands-on way. My press credentials at the Pentagon expired in June. I did not seek the renewal of those credentials. I currently am not a member of the Pentagon Press Corps and no longer attend briefings or events as a journalist." So she's a Fed and then it turns out that Kurt Schickler, the cynical, publicist's account, Rob Manus, these are also feds as well. As Pedro Gonzalez says, "The Pentagon is enlisting right-wing influencers who aren't disclosing their relationships with the federal government. Some of them are media fixtures like Kurt Schickler, a senior town hall columnist. This is a massive scandal and it follows Genika Pounds, Data Republicans being outed as a Pentagon employee." And then you see some of these other people as well who are working for the government to spread this stuff and to attack people who are reporting accurately. But you know, hat tip to Washington Post, they were prepared for that and then they called out all of those people for what they were doing. And this is how it was reported also. The Pentagon quietly placed several conservative military veterans with large social media followings into civilian government roles. Among them, Rob Manus, Kurt Schickler and Thomas Anderson, that's that Publius account, all of them who have publicly defended Hegsith. Some of these influencers reportedly took part in the Pentagon's senior service college task force, which was created to examine military colleges for ideology, described as toxic or woke during a visit to the Army War College. These influencers showed up and they questioned students and professors about military leaders and course content. And this follows a West Point professor who just filed a lawsuit against the West Point and against the Defense Department for firing him because he reported on climate change because the Trump regime doesn't want any reporting there. Now, we've also been reporting here about the purge by Hegsith of top military officials. You know, everybody from Army Chief of Staff, Randy George to General Donahue, who was one of the top commanders for the United States military in Europe, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, CQ Brown Jr. was fired because he was black and he was fired because again, the Trump regime's not promoting black people and women. And I had the opportunity to interview Senator Kelly, of course, combat veteran, flew 38 combat missions as an aviator, as a navy aviator. And here's what he told me about the purge of top military officials. Let's play it right over here. Good leadership can be contagious. The problem right now also is that bad leadership can be contagious as well. And we're starting to see some of that folks around Pete Hegsith and around the president start to try to emulate his behavior, which is not being straightforward, not being transparent, trying to avoid accountability at all costs. You know, they realize, I think most of them probably realize they made a mistake. Getting into a war with another country with the Iranians without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, and without a way out. And now they're stuck and they don't know what to do about it. And this president doesn't have answers. He has no idea what he's doing. Remember, this is a guy who truly believes, truly believes that he knows more than experienced admirals and generals about the military, about conflict, about national security, about combat operations. He does not. He actually thinks he knows more about, you know, everything than everyone. And that's dangerous. And that's why we find ourselves in this spot because he was the president of the United States. He took us to war and with no good reason at that moment to do it. And so this has been a beat that we've been covering for a long time at the Midas Touch Network, the purge of our top military leaders and military leaders issuing these warnings. And now we're seeing a lot more of this come out there. And you've got to give credit where it's do a great report by Washington Post here. And in general, the defense reporters who have been banned from the Pentagon by Hegsith, they've been doing a great job doing lots of reporting here. Shout out to the reporters over at stars and stripes as well. And shout out to the Midas touch reporters who have been doing a great job covering this Aaron Parnas also affiliated with the Midas Touch Nuz's own independent meeting network. He's been doing great reporting also about the horrible conditions aboard the aircraft carriers and the military bases to all the military families who watched this. And I know they were quite a few. I hear from you all the time. We're thinking about you. You are always in our hearts and in our minds. And we're thinking about you and your family members serving abroad. And we believe that it's one of the most patriotic things we can do is to bring attention to what's really happening out there. Thanks for watching. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to seven million subscribers. Appreciate you. Breaking news right now. My brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America. And well, doesn't that just say it all? It comes out officially this October. But you can pre-order your copy today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below. [Music]
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
A classified Pentagon document, the Secretary of Defense Order Book (SDOB), leaked to the Washington Post, revealing that top military leaders—including Admirals Coddle, Gringo, and Donovan—explicitly do not concur with President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plans for prolonged war in Iran.
The military assessments warn that extended operations in the Middle East risk weakening U.S. capabilities globally and threaten national security, including homeland defense. Navy officials report operational and financial instability, with payroll issues and insufficient funding.
Pentagon officials, including Sean Parnell, dismiss the leak as a breach of trust and accuse the Post of publishing inaccurate, politically motivated content, while asserting that "non-concurse" are standard in military operations.
The Washington Post, led by reporters Alex Horton and Tara Kopp, defends the leak as essential independent journalism, especially amid government suppression of military concerns.
A major scandal emerged involving the Pentagon secretly hiring conservative social media influencers—such as Data Republican (Jenica Pounds), Kurt Schickler, Rob Manus, and Publius—as "special government employees" to spread regime propaganda, without public disclosure.
These influencers, many with large followings, participated in internal Pentagon initiatives like the Army War College review and were found to be promoting Hegseth’s policies while attacking journalists who report critically.
The Trump administration has been accused of a broader pattern of purging top military leaders—including General CQ Brown Jr. and Army Chief Randy George—based on race, gender, or dissent, and of promoting unqualified leadership through ideological loyalty.
Summary:
S. military officials—including Navy Admiral Coddle, Air Force generals, and joint command leaders—strongly oppose President Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to continue a large-scale war in Iran. S.
military readiness and national security. The SDOB, typically released monthly, outlines military readiness and includes explicit non-concurrence with current and future strategies. The Pentagon responded by attacking the Post, calling the leak a criminal breach and accusing it of spreading misinformation.
However, reporters like Dan Lemuth and Alex Horton assert that independent journalism is vital when government officials withhold critical military assessments. A deeper scandal emerged: the Pentagon has quietly hired conservative social media influencers—such as Data Republican (Jenica Pounds), Kurt Schickler, and Rob Manus—as special government employees without public disclosure. These individuals, many with large followings, are now seen as state-backed propagandists promoting the Trump administration’s agenda.
Their roles include conducting ideological reviews at military colleges and attacking journalists. This reveals a troubling pattern of politicized military leadership, suppressed dissent, and the weaponization of media influence, raising serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and the integrity of the military and defense institutions.
FAQs
The document showed that top generals and admirals, including Coddle and Gringo Witch, do not concur with the plan to prolong large-scale operations against Iran, warning that such actions risk weakening U.S. capabilities elsewhere.
It is a highly classified, twice-monthly document that outlines military readiness and strategic priorities, and its leak reveals direct military assessments that contradict the administration's war strategy.
Yes, multiple top military officials stated they do not concur with the current and future plans for war in Iran, calling the strategy catastrophic and unsustainable.
The Post reported on the classified SDOB document, exposing military warnings and the non-concurrence of top leaders, and defended independent journalism as essential during government secrecy.
Yes, figures like Data Republican (Jenica Pounds), Kurt Schickler, and Rob Manus have been identified as special government employees working for the Pentagon without public disclosure.
The Pentagon has reportedly hired conservative influencers to spread propaganda, amplify the views of Secretary Hegseth, and discredit journalists and critics of the administration.
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