Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went on a rant against the press where he told not just Iran but the American media to “choose wisely” before launching into a religious diatribe.
The Pentagon chief accused the media of putting out what he called an “endless stream of garbage.”
Hegseth has repeatedly whined about the media coverage and being pressed with challenging questions since the war began.
“The relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on. It’s incredibly unpatriotic,” Hegseth complained on Thursday at his briefing.
He then spoke about himself sitting in church on Sunday with his family, while continuing his religious rant. The defense secretary referenced how the Pharisees sought to destroy Jesus and compared it to the media with Trump.
“This past Sunday, I was sitting in church with my family, and our minister preached from the Book of Mark, the third chapter, and in the passage, Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees came to watch,” Hegseth started.
“As the scripture reads, they came to see whether he, Jesus, would heal him, or he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him,” the defense secretary sermoned.
“You see, the Pharisees, the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time, they were there to witness, to write everything down, to report, but their hearts were hardened, even though they witnessed a literal miracle. It didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” Hegseth went on.
“I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees, not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press,” Hegseth complained.
He accused the press of having a “politically motivated animus” against Trump that blinds them to the “brilliance” of the “American warriors.”
The media has closely scrutinized the president for launching a war and shifting objectives and timelines. However, there has been almost no direct criticism of the service members carrying out operations.
“The Pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation, only looking for the negative,” Hegseth rambled as if Trump were Jesus in the comparison.
It comes as the president has been in hot water with his own supporters for posting and then deleting an AI-generated image that depicted him as a Jesus-like figure this week.
“The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn,” Hegseth lamented. I would ask you to open your eyes to the goodness, the historic success of our troops, the courage of this president, and this historic moment for a deal that could end the Iranian nuclear threat."
He went on to complain about there not being coverage of historic recruiting or what he claimed was a “new spirit in the country,” despite soldiers recently contradicting his accounts of the Iranian strike in Kuwait.
“In the press, you only seek the negative, earning each and every day, the fake news label,” the defense secretary whined.
He argued that the American people “see past the Pharisees in our press.”
The president has been feuding with Pope Leo XIV and attacked the highest Catholic leader directly for being critical of his war in Iran.
The president’s close allies in his administration, including Vice President JD Vance, a practicing Catholic, jumped to Trump’s defense.
Hegseth has also been sharply rebuked by a top clergyman in the military for invoking Jesus to rally support for the war in Iran.
A reporter could be heard trying to ask the Pentagon chief about the president’s feud with the pope after he concluded his briefing, but Hegseth departed without answering.
