While millions of Americans were commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ this past weekend, a cabal of media propagandists and D.C. insiders was busy formulating a seemingly coordinated campaign to take down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Within hours of one another, The New York Times and Politico dropped hit pieces on Sunday against the Pentagon chief. The pieces were apparently aimed at undermining his leadership of America’s military. While the former used anonymous sources to try and revive the media’s “Signalgate” dud, the latter ran an op-ed from a former Defense Department spokesman — who resigned last week after evidently failing to get the Pentagon job he wanted — alleging “total chaos” at the agency under Hegseth’s direction.
NPR decided to join the pile-on, publishing a piece on Monday containing allegations from an unnamed “U.S. official” that the White House “has begun the process of looking for a new leader at the Pentagon to replace Pete Hegseth.” The White House quickly shot down the claim.
The articles were published on the heels of a major shake-up at the Pentagon last week, which saw the dismissal of several high-level advisers over claims of unauthorized leaking. The officials have since denied the allegations.
While Democrats have predictably latched onto these new hatchet jobs to re-up their demands for Hegseth to lose his job, the media’s latest “bombshells” aren’t the earth-shattering scandals they wish they were. If anything, the use of anonymous sources and disgruntled former colleagues is straight out of the same playbook these “journalists” have been running to try and oust Hegseth since he was tapped to lead the Pentagon last year.
But as desperate as this latest anti-Hegseth campaign may seem, it’s critical to understand the motivations behind these new hit pieces and why these actors are so dead set on taking down President Trump’s defense secretary.
For one, consider the greater political conversation engulfing the media in the days leading up to Sunday’s “bombshells.”
Democrats and their buddies in the corporate press spent the entirety of last week fomenting outrage about the Trump administration’s deportation of a Salvadoran national with alleged ties to MS-13 back to El Salvador. Without a drop of shame, these propagandists characterized this alleged wife-beater as just a “Maryland man,” with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., even going as far as to travel to El Salvador to meet the deported noncitizen.
For a party with record-low favorability ratings among the American people, running to the defense of an illegal alien credibly accused of being affiliated with a deadly gang isn’t exactly great optics. It’s clear Democrats needed a narrative change fast, and their media allies’ new anti-Hegseth blitz represented the perfect off-ramp.
Second, and more important, the D.C. establishment’s continued campaign to oust Hegseth comes from its fervent opposition to the much-needed change he’s bringing to the Pentagon.
For years, the Defense Department has operated within the best interests of the agency’s higher-ups and D.C.’s notorious defense-industrial complex. While high-ranking officials used their coveted positions of influence to advance neo-Marxist ideologies throughout the Pentagon and defense contractors got rich off of America’s military involvement in nonsensical overseas conflicts, rank-and-file service members’ needs were ignored, the country’s military infrastructure crumbled, and the priority of winning wars went out the window.
Unlike his predecessors, Hegseth is someone who comes from outside this incestuous system that’s responsible for the decay witnessed throughout America’s armed forces. Much like Trump, he’s a disruptor — and by every measure, he’s doing exactly what the president appointed him to do.
Since taking over the reins at the DOD, Hegseth has overseen a noticeable rise in military recruiting, eliminated divisive and destructive DEI ideology, restored standards to military service, scrapped the Pentagon’s immoral and illegal Biden-era abortion policy, ended racist affirmative action policies at U.S. military academies, directed military assets to protect America’s borders, carried out strikes on Houthi terrorists, and more.
One would also be hard pressed to find another defense secretary like Hegseth, who regularly works out alongside active-duty service members and listens to their concerns and thoughts on military policy. Contrast this behavior with that of Joe Biden’s noticeably overweight defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who was seemingly too busy kicking out troops who were unvaccinated for Covid to care about their perspectives on issues facing the force.
Despite their collective shrieking, the loudest voices within the D.C. establishment aren’t concerned that Hegseth doesn’t have what it takes to lead the Pentagon. Rather, they’re afraid of the changes he is and will continue to implement that directly disrupt the status quo they’ve spent years protecting.
If Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary thus far is what “total chaos” is supposed to look like, then by all means keep it coming.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
