Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a campaign appearance for Rep. Thomas Massie’s primary challenger on Monday and delivered a profanity-filled impression of Donald Trump.
The Pentagon chief insisted he was acting in his personal capacity when he traveled to Kentucky to support retired Navy SEAL and farmer Ed Gallrein despite facing many pressing issues back in Washington, including the war in Iran. The Kentucky primary is on Tuesday.
“When he first offered me this job, he said,’ Pete, you’re going to have to be tough as s--t.’ Sorry, he did,” Hegseth said. “‘They’re going to come after ya.’ And boy was he right.”
As the defense secretary delivered his impression, the audience cheered and laughed, but the entire campaign appearance got off to an awkward start.
Gallrein first introduced Hegseth as a “fellow ranger,” but the defense secretary clarified shortly into his speech that he was “not ranger qualified.”
While past defense secretaries, including Hegseth, have run for political office, it is extremely rare for a current secretary to attend a political rally. But Hegseth has been blatantly political for his entire run as the head of the Pentagon.
While in Hebron, Hegseth touted Gallrein’s military service as one of his top credentials for ousting Massie.
Hegseth said Gallrein represents a “war fighter, a man forged through service.”
“Here’s the thing about men who come from that kind of world, they don’t scare easily. Washington doesn’t intimidate them, the media doesn’t intimidate ' hem, the Twitter mob doesn’t intimidate them because after you’ve led men in life and death situations, the games that are played inside the beltway look pretty small,” he said.
But the defense secretary went from proclaiming the importance of not being intimidated in the nation’s capital to insisting that voters needed to elect someone who would go along with everything Trump said.
“President Trump does not need more people in Washington who are trying to make a point, especially from his own party. He needs people willing to help him win, to vote with him when it matters the most,” the Pentagon chief declared.
Hegseth also repeatedly attacked Democrats as the “radical left” and claimed they are “destroying our country or want to destroy our country.”
He went on to compare Republicans aligned with Trump to the “war fighters” he often talks about in the military, despite the military being designed to be apolitical, with service members spanning different political ideologies.
“President Trump needs reinforcements and that’s what war fighters do. They stand behind leaders and have their back. War fighters understand mission, they understand teamwork, they understand loyalty,” Hegseth declared.
While Hegseth insisted he’s acting as a private citizen, critics have pointed out that he doesn’t just get to set aside the title “defense secretary” whenever he chooses.
The Pentagon ignored Daily Beast’s question on how exactly his Kentucky travel costs were covered, insisting only that it was not by taxpayers.
“Secretary Hegseth is attending this event in his personal capacity. No taxpayer dollars will be used to facilitate his visit. His participation has been thoroughly vetted and cleared by lawyers, including the Department of War Office of General Counsel, and does not violate the Hatch Act or any other applicable federal statute,” said Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell in a statement.
Massie has become one of Trump’s most vocal political foes for refusing to go along with the president, no matter what, like most GOP lawmakers.
While Massie has voted for some aspects of the president’s agenda, he has stuck to his more conservative principles. He’s been fiercely critical of legislation adding to the national debt, the war in Iran, and has been leading the charge to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files.
The repeated opposition to Trump made him the GOP enemy number one, to the president who demands absolute loyalty. Trump, for months, has repeatedly called for him to be ousted from Congress with a series of hostile and deeply personal attacks.
“The worst Congressman in the long and storied history of the Republican Party, is Thomas Massie. He is an obstructionist and a fool. Vote him out of office tomorrow, Tuesday. It will be a great day for America!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The Kentucky primary on Tuesday is now the most expensive House primary in history, with more than $32 million spent on ads, according to tracking by AdImpact.
Gallrein has spent $10.9 million while Massie has spent $7.6 million on ads. Another $7.9 million has been spent on anti-Massie ads while anti-Gallrein ads have totaled $6.2 million.
