Pete Hegseth
person
Pete Hegseth is the U.S. Secretary of Defense, confirmed in January 2025 after a contentious Senate vote that required Vice President Vance's tiebreaker. He previously hosted "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Fox News and served as an Army National Guard officer with deployments to Iraq and Guantanamo. Under his leadership the Pentagon expanded its role in domestic immigration operations and counternarcotics strikes in Latin America.
Entries involving this actor (21)
U.S. resumes Iran strikes for a second straight day, defying House war-powers resolution
On June 10–11, 2026, the United States resumed major airstrikes against Iran for a second consecutive day, collapsing a ceasefire that had held since early April and re-escalating a war the executive branch began on February 28, 2026 without congressional authorization. The strikes came barely a week after the House passed a War Powers Resolution, 215–208, directing the President to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran absent a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force. The administration continued to assert that the resolution's 60-day clock did not apply because a ceasefire had "paused" it, pressing ahead with strikes over Congress's recorded objection.
Trump ordered D.C. National Guard levels not be lowered; Hegseth pledged to 'surge this summer'
At a White House cabinet meeting on May 27, 2026, President Donald Trump publicly directed that the number of National Guard troops deployed across Washington, D.C. not be reduced, saying "don't lower the number." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at the same table, responded that the administration would "surge this summer too." The exchange committed the executive branch to maintaining and expanding an ongoing federalized National Guard presence in the District, part of the administration's domestic security posture in U.S. cities.
Hegseth strikes nine officers, including all three women, from Navy one-star admiral promotion list
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck nine of the 31 officers a Navy promotion board had selected for promotion from captain to one-star rear admiral — including all three women and two Black men — before the Pentagon released the amended list on May 22, 2026. The full slate had already been approved by then-Navy Secretary John Phelan, Navy leadership, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine; the Pentagon has offered no rationale for the removals, which sources say targeted officers for participation in DEI initiatives. As a result, the Navy will promote no women to one-star admiral this year.
Pentagon cuts recognized military faith codes from ~211 to 31, dropping minority faiths
A May 20, 2026 Defense Department memorandum signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata cut the military's list of officially recognized religious affiliation codes from roughly 211 to 31, dropping an estimated 180 minority faiths and worldviews — including atheists, humanists, pagans, Wiccans, Druids, Heathens/Asatru, deists, Unitarian Universalists, and spiritualists. The reduction, directed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, preserves majority faiths while removing the de-recognized groups' access to formal chaplain support.
Trump White House backed taxpayer-funded 'Rededicate 250' worship service on National Mall
On May 17, 2026, the Trump White House backed an all-day evangelical worship service — "Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving" — on the National Mall, funded through a mix of taxpayer dollars and private donations. President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared by video, and House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed the crowd in person alongside religious leaders. Church-state separation advocates and constitutional-law scholars said the federal government's endorsement and partial funding of an explicitly Christian worship service on federal land raised First Amendment Establishment Clause concerns.
Pentagon plans to rename Iran war 'Sledgehammer' to restart the War Powers 60-day clock
On May 12, 2026, NBC News reported — citing two U.S. officials and a White House official — that the Pentagon is preparing to officially rename the U.S. war with Iran from "Operation Epic Fury" to "Operation Sledgehammer" if the current ceasefire collapses and President Trump orders the resumption of major combat operations. The White House official told NBC that any renewed campaign would be conducted under a new name and that, from the administration's perspective, this would effectively restart the 60-day clock under the 1973 War Powers Resolution that requires congressional authorization for sustained hostilities. The maneuver layers onto the administration's existing position that the early-April ceasefire paused the statutory clock — which expired May 1 by Antiwar.com's count — even as the United States has continued to enforce a blockade of Iran.
Hegseth calls for second Pentagon investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly over weapons-stockpile remarks
On Sunday, May 10, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly called for a second Pentagon investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) over Kelly's comments on CBS' "Face the Nation" about depleted U.S. munitions stockpiles amid the Iran war, posting that the Pentagon's legal counsel would review whether Kelly had "violate[d] his oath." Kelly, a retired Navy captain who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, responded that the substance of his remarks was not classified and pointed to Hegseth's own prior public testimony about the same stockpile-depletion timeline. The referral came days after a D.C. Circuit panel appeared poised to reject Hegseth's first effort to punish Kelly — an administrative action to reduce Kelly's retired military rank over a November video urging service members to refuse illegal orders.
Hegseth replaces Congressionally-mandated Military Justice Review Panel with open-ended Pentagon legal-system review under his own general counsel
On May 8, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a two-page memo directing the creation of an "ongoing, long-term, department-wide review of all aspects of the military legal system," convened by Department of Defense General Counsel Earl Matthews and reporting directly to Hegseth. The new panel substitutes for the Military Justice Review Panel — the 13-member independent oversight body created by Congress in April 2022 to report to Congress, which Hegseth disbanded in 2025 after it delivered a 238-page review of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Current and former JAGs describe the move as completing a transfer of military-legal oversight from an independent, Congressionally-created body to an executive-controlled panel staffed by political appointees.
Pentagon defies court order on press access with circumventing 'Interim Policy'
On April 9, 2026, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that the Department of Defense violated his March 20, 2026 order voiding key provisions of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's restrictive Pentagon press policy as unconstitutional. Days after that ruling, the Department had issued a new "Interim Policy" that abruptly closed the Correspondents' Corridor press workspace and barred credentialed journalists from moving through the Pentagon unescorted — measures the court called "transparent attempts to negate the impact of this court's order," achieving "the same unconstitutional result" with "slightly different language." The judge barred enforcement of the new policy against New York Times Pentagon reporters and ordered their physical access to the building restored.
Hegseth forces Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George into immediate retirement mid-term
On April 2, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to retire "effective immediately," roughly 18 months before the end of his statutory four-year term. Defense officials tied the removal not to policy differences but to Hegseth's effort to clear the orbit of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — whom Hegseth cannot fire — and to install loyalists, with Hegseth's former senior military aide, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, made acting chief of staff.
Hegseth lifts Apache crews' suspensions and quashes Army investigation of Kid Rock estate flyby
On March 31, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on his personal X account that the Army aircrews suspended over a March 28 Apache helicopter flyby of singer Kid Rock's Nashville estate would face "No punishment. No investigation," lifting the suspensions and quashing the Army's formal review hours after the service had confirmed it. The reversal came shortly after President Trump commented publicly on the incident, and Hegseth opened his post by thanking Kid Rock.
Pentagon declares in-building press workspace off-limits days after court ordered access restored
On March 23, 2026 — three days after a federal judge permanently enjoined the Defense Department's earlier press restrictions as unconstitutional — Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell announced that the in-building press workspace, including the decades-old "Correspondents' Corridor," was now entirely off-limits to journalists. The department said a replacement workspace would be relocated to an annex outside the Pentagon and that all journalist access would henceforth require an escort by authorized personnel. The New York Times and the Pentagon Press Association called the move a violation of the court's order and a retaliatory narrowing of press access.
Hegseth launches task force to ideologically review the military's senior service colleges
On March 12, 2026, Secretary of War (Defense) Pete Hegseth announced a 90-day task force to review the U.S. military's Senior Service Colleges — the Army War College, National Defense University, Naval War College, Marine Corps University, and Air War College — declaring that professional military education "should produce warfighters and leaders—not wokesters." Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata was tasked with standing up the review to scrutinize professors, administrators, and curriculum and to "rip out" courses and ideologies the department deems DEI-related, with the stated aim of refocusing the schools on national-security strategy, history, and warfighting.
JTF Southern Spear killed six aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 45th strike, ~157 campaign deaths
On Sunday, March 8, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean it described as "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," killing six men. SOUTHCOM said the strike was ordered by its commander, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, and carried out by Joint Task Force Southern Spear against a boat allegedly transiting known narco-trafficking routes. It was the campaign's 45th announced strike, bringing Operation Southern Spear's reported cumulative death toll to roughly 156-157 people, and as in every prior strike the Pentagon provided no public evidence the vessel carried narcotics and did not identify those killed.
Pentagon brands Anthropic a 'supply chain risk' in retaliation for refusing unrestricted military use of its AI models
On March 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Defense formally notified Anthropic that the company and its products were designated a "supply chain risk," effective immediately — a label normally reserved for firms tied to foreign adversaries and reportedly the first publicly applied to an American company. The designation, which bars defense contractors from using Anthropic's technology, followed the breakdown of contract talks: the Pentagon demanded access to Anthropic's Claude models "for all lawful purposes," while the company's acceptable-use policy barred their use for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance of Americans. After Anthropic refused to drop those limits, President Trump on February 27 ordered agencies and contractors to halt business with the company and called its stance a "disastrous mistake," and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tied the designation directly to the firm's refusal to comply — even as the military continued using Claude to support intelligence and targeting work.
Hegseth cancels 93 military fellowships at elite universities, bars officers from attending
In a memo signed February 27, 2026 — "Aligning Senior Service College Opportunities With American Values" — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the cancellation of about 93 Pentagon-funded Senior Service College fellowships at roughly 22 civilian universities, including Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Brown, MIT, and Georgetown, effective the 2026–27 academic year. He barred the military from sending active-duty officers to graduate programs at the named schools, declaring in a same-day video that elite institutions had become "factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain." Officers already enrolled were permitted to finish their coursework.
Pentagon cuts ties with Harvard, ending military training and fellowships
On February 6, 2026, the Department of War (Pentagon) announced it would sever academic ties with Harvard University, ending Pentagon-funded graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs connected to the school beginning in the 2026–27 academic year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Harvard "no longer meets the needs of the War Department," faulting officers who returned "looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies," and a Pentagon account posted on X that "Harvard is woke; The War Department is not." The Pentagon described the cut as the first in a broader review of elite universities, with officers already enrolled allowed to finish their coursework.
JTF Southern Spear struck convoy in eastern Pacific, killing three and abandoning survivors; 31st-33rd strikes, ~110 campaign deaths
On Dec. 30, 2025, at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted "lethal kinetic strikes" on a three-vessel convoy in the eastern Pacific that U.S. Southern Command described as operated by designated terrorist organizations along narco-trafficking routes, killing three people aboard the first boat. Men aboard the other two vessels jumped overboard before follow-on strikes sank the remaining boats; SOUTHCOM said it notified the Coast Guard for search and rescue, but the search began only after a roughly 45-hour delay and was suspended on Jan. 3 with no survivors found. The command identified no organization, made no evidence public, charged no one, and attempted no interdiction or arrest in what it counted as the 31st through 33rd strikes of a campaign that had by then killed at least 110 people.
JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 30th strike, ~107 campaign deaths
On Dec. 29, 2025, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon's Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal "kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people. U.S. Southern Command claimed the boat was operated by designated terrorist organizations and engaged in narco-trafficking but provided no evidence to support the claim. It was the 30th known boat strike in the campaign since Sept. 2, bringing the reported death toll to at least 107.
JTF Southern Spear killed four aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 26th strike, ~99 campaign deaths
On December 17, 2025, at the direction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing four people. U.S. Southern Command described the boat as operated by a designated terrorist organization along a known narco-trafficking route, but provided no charges, judicial process, or independent evidence. The same day, Senate war-powers resolutions intended to constrain the campaign failed to reach the floor.
JTF Southern Spear killed four aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 22nd strike, ~87 campaign deaths
On December 4, 2025, U.S. Southern Command's Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters in the eastern Pacific, killing four people on board. The Department of Defense claimed the boat was operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and was carrying narcotics, but released no supporting evidence. The strike was one of roughly 23 carried out since early September 2025, in which approximately 87 people had been killed without arrest, charge, or any judicial process.