Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth might have banned photographers from his press events in a fury over ugly pictures of himself but that hasn’t stopped TV crews from capturing some of his more perplexing facial expressions.
Hegseth held a briefing Friday at the Pentagon after the Washington Post reported the Secretary has now barred entry to the conference room to certain journalists deemed to have snapped what he considers “unflattering” images of him talking.
The briefing was nevertheless televised. Stills from that footage show Hegseth gazing awkwardly up at the ceiling, grimacing as he delivers his updates, puckering his mouth as he rails against “fake news” headlines, and at multiple points throughout his address standing with his mouth wide open.
Comments have been disabled under an official YouTube stream of the event.
Two sources told WaPo that Hegseth’s team had apparently taken issue with how he looked in photos from his first public update on Trump’s new war against Iran, given on March 2, just days after the strikes first began.
The Secretary’s staff then chose to block those photographers from attending further briefings on March 4 and 10, and then again at Friday’s press conference.
The Atlantic journalist Nancy Youssef suggested on X shortly after Hegseth’s address began that the bans now appear to have expanded, writing that “I, along with print photographers, have been denied entry to cover today’s Pentagon briefing. All other media were allowed in.”
Hegseth’s Press Secretary, Kingsley Wilson, previously told The Washington Post that the decision owed simply to accommodating the number of press representatives in the room.
“In order to use space in the Pentagon Briefing Room effectively, we are allowing one representative per news outlet if uncredentialed, excluding pool,” she said. “Photographs from the briefings are immediately released online for the public and press to use.”
“If that hurts the business model for certain news outlets, then they should consider applying for a Pentagon press credential,” she went on.
Hegseth has imposed major restrictions on the Pentagon press corps, effectively forcing most mainstream outlets out of the building in favor of workers from friendlier media.
The Daily Beast contacted DOD for comment on this story. “While The Atlantic remains welcome at our press briefings, we cannot accommodate every request to attend,” Wilson said. There are only 60 seats available for journalists to occupy. Every seat in the room, with the exception of one of the credentialed outlets, had one representative per outlet in the room.“
“Nancy Youssef of The Atlantic was one of 10 other reporters that we could not accommodate due to space,” she went on. “Because The Atlantic has already attended every briefing to date since Operation Epic Fury began, we gave the chance for other outlets to also have the opportunity to attend.”
“We also gave Ms. Youssef notice that we could not accommodate her on Thursday, the day before the briefing,” Wilson added.
