The inspector general’s report, published on 13 May, points to an inflection point in February, when two senior officials – the acting under secretary of war for policy, Elbridge Colby, and the secretary of the army, Dan Driscoll – separately proposed to Hegseth the program be cut or eliminated.

One proposal went further, according to the report, and recommended scrapping its action plan and its underpinning departmental instruction entirely. Then, without waiting for a response, the military began acting as if the cuts had already been approved.

Later that month, the US launched strikes on Iran.