On Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to blow Iran “off the face of the Earth” if it attacks a U.S. ship.

And since Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has sounded—and looked—like MAGA’s ideal warfighter since Trump unleashed the dogs of war two months ago, it seemed certain that he would be equally combative at the 8 a.m. Tuesday Pentagon press briefing.

But the Hegseth who had previously declared there would be “no quarter, no mercy” for the Iranians instead announced that the U.S. was launching a new initiative called “Project Freedom” to establish a “red, white, and blue dome” to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. “American forces won’t need to enter Iranian waters or airspace,” Hegseth said.

“It’s not necessary,” he explained. “We’re not looking for a fight.”

“The ceasefire is not over,” Hegseth declared—even though the firing has not ceased. He did not seem too bothered by the fact that Iran had launched missiles and drones and dispatched fast boats, which the U.S. promptly sank. He repeated that the U.S. was committed to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, but used a word few would even expect to be in his vocabulary.

“This is more than strategy,” Hegseth stated. “It’s also humanitarian. By breaking Iran’s illegal stranglehold, we’re protecting the lives and livelihoods of sailors from dozens of countries, securing global energy routes and preventing shortages that hit the world’s poorest people the hardest.”

He was actually voicing concern for the destitute—even those who are not American.

But Hegseth is ultimately a sock puppet dedicated to ingratiating himself with Trump. And that almost certainly means that Hegseth’s tempered message was what the president wanted him to convey to us.

Back on March 6, Trump declared that “there will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.”

After the Iranian regime failed to just fold, and gas prices rose, and his standing in the polls sank, Trump has, in fact, repeatedly sought to make a deal.