Critics ridicule Hegseth for 'gaslighting' on Iran ceasefire: 'Operation wishful thinking'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was widely ridiculed Wednesday after framing the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement tentatively reached on Tuesday as a “military victory,” and one that Iran “begged for,” despite many of its provisions directly contradicting some of the Trump administration’s stated war objectives.

“Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it,” Hegseth claimed during a Pentagon press briefing.

Despite Hegseth’s framing of the ceasefire agreement, Iranian military officer and spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari described it as “a great victory” for Iran that “forced criminal America to accept its ten-point plan.” And yet, Hegseth continued to frame the agreement as a decisive victory for the United States, which he suggested had forced Iran’s hand.

“The gaslighting stopped working,” wrote liberal influencer Brian Krassenstein in a social media post on X to their nearly 1 million followers, responding to Hegseth’s claim that Iran had “suffered a devastating military defeat.”

“Press briefing Operation Wishful Thinking,” wrote another, Belgian political commentator Kurt Vanderheyden, in a social media post on X.

After threatening to destroy Iran’s entire civilization Tuesday morning by 8 p.m. EST that same night, Trump announced – just hours ahead of his deadline – that his administration had tentatively agreed to a 10-point peace plan submitted by Tehran. The plan would require the United States to refrain from further attacks on Iran, agree to a permanent end to the war, lift all sanctions, and allow Iran to retain control of the Strait of Hormuz, among other provisions.

“How did they get defeated when they are making more money from the Strait of Hormuz and they stand to get sanctions relief?” Krassenstein wrote in another response to Hegseth’s briefing. “Meanwhile they get a more extreme leader, we spent $42 billion, and our gas prices are through the roof. We lost. They gained.”

And Mediate politics writer Jennifer Bowers Bahney, also responding to Hegseth’s claim that Iran had suffered a “devastating military defeat,” suggested that “no one believes a word” from Hegseth or the White House regarding Iran.