Hegseth to travel with Trump to Middle East next week, postpones Israel trip

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Friday announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has postponed his trip to Israel next week in order to travel with President Donald Trump to the Middle East. 

The president's first major international trip of his second term begins next Tuesday and includes visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Trump's first international trip of his first term as president was also to Saudi Arabia.

Parnell emphasized in a post on X that the secretary had not canceled his planned trip to Israel, and would still be visiting the country in the future. Hegseth was expected to arrive in Israel next Monday.

"Secretary Hegseth did not cancel his trip to Israel," Parnell said. " He was asked to join President Trump’s Middle East trip next week & is honored to do so. SECDEF very much looks forward to visiting our ally Israel soon."

No new timeline for when the secretary will visit Israel, which is in a war with the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas, has been announced.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.