Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth kicked off his briefing whining about the coverage of Trump’s war in Iran as the conflict rages with no end in sight.
The former Fox News personality-turned-Pentagon chief has frequently ranted that he does not believe the war is being reported as he wants, or that the president is getting the praise he thinks Donald Trump deserves.
“I stand here today speaking to you, the American people,” Hegseth declared, pointing directly to the cameras. “Not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin.”
“A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing—we know this, at this point—to downplay progress, amplify every cost and call into question every step," he vented.
Hegseth accused the press of having ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome, ranting: “Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail.”
The Pentagon chief argued that the American people “know better.”
Despite the Pentagon’s push to remake its press corps into a pro-Trump, MAGA-influencer-filled pack, it has not stopped reporters, including those from conservative outlets, from raising serious questions about the ongoing conflict, so Hegseth has resorted to direct-to-camera appeals.
“You, the American people, know better,” he insisted on Thursday. “Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today. It’s you, the good, decent, patriotic American people. You, the hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing American patriots.”
Hegseth then vented that much of the media in the room “wants you to think, just 19 days into this conflict, that we’re somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a Forever War or a quagmire.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Hegseth insisted.
Just moments later, he admitted the Defense Department was asking for $200 billion for the war, double what one year of the Iraq War cost.
But the 45-year-old Pentagon chief was not done raging at the media after he finished his prepared remarks.
When answering a question about Iran’s internet blackouts, Hegseth accused the media of falling for fake AI-generated images, which was largely untrue of the U.S. media covering the war.
“They want to put out fake AI-generated images, which by the way, sometimes our press happens to fall for, like the Abraham Lincoln on fire and turning around,” the defense secretary claimed, making a dig at the press while criticizing Iran.
The irony of his complaining about AI was not lost on anyone, as the White House and Trump have repeatedly released or reposted their own AI-generated videos since the administration began.
Thursday’s meltdown was not Hegseth’s first anti-media rant against his former industry since the war began. During his last briefing, he went after CNN and offered a series of suggestions for the headlines he thought the war should have.
