While Praying to 'the Lord,' Hegseth Threatens 'Most Intense Day of Strikes' in Iran

President Donald Trump's top defense official appeared resolute Tuesday in pushing for continued chaos in the Middle Eastern country—and intensified concerns that the Trump administration is waging a religious "crusade" against Iran by praying at a press briefing.

After telling reporters that Tuesday would "be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bowed his head in prayer and said he was "drawing strength from Psalm 144."

"Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle," said the defense secretary, who has backed Trumps' assertion that the Department of Defense is called the Department of War. "May the Lord grant unyielding strength to our warriors, unbreakable protection to them and our homeland, and total victory over those who seek to harm them."

Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, made no mention of efforts to return to diplomatic talks, which were reportedly making significant progress toward a deal on Iran's nuclear program late last month when the US and Israel began bombarding Iran—striking civilian infrastructure including schools and healthcare facilities and killing more than 1,300 people so far, according to Iranian officials.

Hegseth said Trump has "maximum options" to conduct the war and said it is up to the president to determine whether “it’s the beginning, the middle, or the end" of the conflict, which has spread to Lebanon and other surrounding countries while the administration's explanation of its objectives in Iran have shifted.

The defense secretary's religious display came a week after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) said it had received more than 100 reports from noncommissioned officers who said commanding military officers have spoken about the war on Iran as though it's a religious conflict.

The Pentagon has long-established rules prohibiting proselytizing within its ranks, but MRFF president Mikey Weinstein said commanders have appeared "especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be, zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end-of-the-world eschatology.”

Hegseth has prayed at military briefings previously and invited Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to preach at the Pentagon.

On Monday, MS NOW's Ali Velshi posited that without a clear objective or the support of a majority of the American public, observers are left wondering whether the religious displays of Hegseth and military commanders make clear what the goal of attacking Iran is: a religious battle led by Christian nationalists.

"It wasn’t that long ago that groups in parts of the Middle East invoked extremist interpretations of Islam to justify violence against the West... But that religious extremism did not arise in a vacuum. Crucially, it was sustained by a political bargain," wrote Velshi. "Something eerily similar is now unfolding right here at home, and it has been building for some time."

He continued:

More than two centuries after the framers warned about the dangers of merging faith with political power, we are now seeing a version of that same dynamic take hold at the highest levels of American government. It’s not just creeping in; it is actively shaping how this war is being understood and justified—from those advising the president to military commanders briefing troops before their deployment.

[...]

The US military was never meant to fight for a religious prophecy. In fact, the founding fathers were so concerned about the line between church and state—which includes the military—that they included it in the Bill of Rights.

But today, under Trump, Hegseth, and the Christian nationalist movement that surrounds them, that line is being erased in real time.

The price of that erasure will be paid for with the lives of innocent civilians abroad. It may be paid for with the lives of innocent civilians here at home. And it will surely be paid for by American soldiers, sailors and airmen and women, many of whom are being told they are carrying out God’s command.

At The Guardian on Sunday, David Smith emphasized how Hegseth has combined "bombastic" threats—asserting that Iranian leaders "are toast" and bragging that "we are punching them while they’re down" as evidence emerged that the US was behind a strike on a girls' school—with his displays of Christian nationalist beliefs.

“Pete Hegseth is a very dangerous person," Janessa Goldbeck of Vet Voice Foundation told Smith. "He’s a white Christian nationalist and has the arsenal of the United States government at his disposal and a permission slip from President Trump to deploy carnage wherever he wishes against whomever he wishes.”