Democratic presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel has warned that Donald Trump’s embrace of loyalists like Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard poses a greater risk than ever to American security.
In scathing comments on The Daily Beast Podcast, Emanuel, who served as Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff, called Trump an “impulsive president” who “does not have the attention span or the discipline to ask or inquire on the follow-up questions.”
He said there wasn’t a single person in Trump’s top intelligence or defense team he would call in a crisis.
Podcast host Joanna Coles asked about Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, and her recent backpedaling on Iran’s nuclear posture after Trump said her intelligence was “wrong.”
Gabbard had initially said, back in March, that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. But after Trump disagreed with that assessment, she said the U.S. had intelligence that Iran could produce a weapon “within weeks to months.” Trump went on to authorize a bombing raid on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“Well, that was a plea to keep her job. That wasn’t her army,” said Emanuel, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan during Joe Biden’s presidency.
The former Chicago mayor, whose adult children are in the U.S. Navy, suggested the idea of his kids serving under the leadership of Fox News host–turned–Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave him pause.
“They took an oath and they’re going to live by that oath,” he said, adding later, “But I would be less than honest if I didn’t tell you—you think about it differently as a parent.”
In the wide-ranging interview, Emanuel, who is eyeing a 2028 presidential run, repeatedly returned to Trump’s refusal to engage seriously with intelligence briefings, warning that the decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites may have been driven more by Israeli pressure than U.S. intel.
“Do I think he has the judgment? No. Do I think he has the discipline? No. Do I think he has surrounded himself by quality people who will challenge his assumptions? No, I do not,” he said. “And I think that’s a big loss. It’s a loss for America.”
In the wake of the U.S. strikes on Iran, Trump promptly announced that Iran’s nuclear sites had been completely “obliterated,” despite uncertainty about the extent of the damage and lingering questions about whether Iranians might have moved stockpiles of enriched uranium to other undisclosed facilities.
Hegseth fell straight into line, praising and thanking Trump in a Sunday press conference and declaring: “Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated.”
In Trump’s first administration, top advisers like Jim Mattis and John Kelly were seen as guardrails and “adults in the room,” occasionally reining in his most impulsive instincts. He didn’t make that mistake second time around.
