The TPUSA Frontlines reporting team was granted press access to the Pentagon to cover the US Department of Defense (now designated Department of War by the Trump administration).
The first press conference after the department changed its press guidelines took place Tuesday. Frontlines White House Correspondent Monica Paige asked Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson a series of questions pertaining to the department.
Paige first asked about Sarah Beckstrom, a National Guardsman who was killed on Thanksgiving by Rahmanullah Lakanwa, a suspect allegedly radicalized Afghan national who made refuge in the US amid the departure of US troops from Afghanistan during the Biden administration. The Department is keeping in close contact with her family, Wilson noted, while the White House is working out a burial for Beckstrom in Arlington National Cemetary.
Paige also asked Wilson about Operation Midnight Hammer and the recent news of Iranian nuclear facilities being planned for reconstruction “with greater strength” than before.
“I can tell you that Operation Midnight hammer was an absolute success,” Wilson responded. “Experts estimated that it would take them two years to recover. Thanks to President Trump’s bold and swift action, we were able to dismantle that threat to the American people. We have seen this department get marred down in the middle east in endless wars and nation building. That has stopped under this president and this secretary. We now have a clear end state and clear mission set, and Operation Midnight Hammer was a success in dismantling that,” she concluded.
