A Republican openly laughed at Pete Hegseth over a stunt in which the defense secretary tried to cosplay as Tom Cruise’s Top Gun character.
Adam Kinzinger, a former Illinois congressman who was one of two Republicans on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, mocked Hegseth while sharing a preview clip of his ride in the back seat of a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet.
“Bahahahhahaha they really are not saying but kind of trying to imply to people that he flew it,” Kinzinger, a former Air National Guard officer, posted on X.
Hegseth took part in a fighter jet demonstration on Sunday at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada, alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine. While former fighter pilot Caine flew his own F-16 fighter jet, Hegseth was instead placed in the passenger seat of an F/A-18 Super Hornet, the same jet flown by Cruise’s character in the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick.
Kinzinger’s post was in response to the Department of War Rapid Response X account sharing an 11-second clip of Hegseth wearing aviator sunglasses while being flown in the jet.
Hegseth had also released an extended version of his visit to Naval Air Station Fallon, home of the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, known as TOPGUN, which showed him getting in and out of the back of the jet rather than implying he was flying it.
“The Chairman and I took a ride into the danger zone with TOPGUN at Naval Air Station Fallon. Incredible Americans,” Hegseth posted on X Tuesday night.
Kinzinger also mocked Hegseth in a reply to the defense secretary’s post, writing, “Oh wow, you rode in the back while someone piloted it??? Soooooo alpha.”
The needless fighter jet demonstration also drew criticism, given that federal workers across the country remain unpaid during the government shutdown and the U.S. faces accusations of war crimes over its attacks on suspected Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean.
“There are better uses of his time than in a simulator and on training flights for what is effectively a stunt,” Dan Grazier, senior fellow and director of the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center, told The Washington Post.
“Not only are we inflicting casualties, but American troops are also in harm’s way. So I would prefer our nation’s leaders keep a closer eye on the ball.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Defense for comment.
