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pete hegseth
Pete Hegseth Can't Handle the Truth
Trump's secretary of war is trying to make it harder for inspectors general and reporters to investigate what's really going on at the Pentagon.
Oct 17, 2025
On September 30, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pontificated before his captive audience of 800 admirals and generals whom he had summoned from locations around the globe. The media reports of the event focused on soundbites: new physical fitness requirements, grooming standards (“no more beardos”—but don’t tell Vice President JD Vance or the president’s son), eliminating “woke” policies, and other elements of his department’s new “warfighting culture.”
Observing that the military's policy on “hazing, bullying, and harassment is overly broad,” Hegseth also said that the inspector general’s office “has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues, and poor performers in the driver’s seat.”
He dealt with that problem too.
Hegseth’s New Rules of Engagement: No. 1—Avoid Accountability
As with all IGs, the Defense Department’s inspector general operates independently to assure government accountability. The office pursues waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, mismanagement, whistleblower complaints, and more. With Hegseth in charge, its plate is full.
As Hegseth railed against the IG, it was investigating Signalgate—his massive national security breach. On March 15, he had used the Signal app to discuss with top Pentagon leaders the detailed plans for an imminent attack on Houthis in Yemen. But the chat mistakenly included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Another Signal chat that day involving similarly sensitive information included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
On September 30, Hegseth published new rules for inspector general investigations, including:
- Within seven days of a complaint, an investigation must be initiated or the complaint closed;
- An investigation can “be initiated only if the complaint meets credible-evidence standard [sic]”;
- The subjects of an investigation must receive status reports every 14 days; and
- “Command directed investigations must be closed within 30 days of initiation….”
The Signalgate investigation itself is evidence that thorough investigations of complex issues cannot occur before the 30-day deadline. That will kill them.
The new timelines and reporting requirements are part of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to curtail oversight of legally questionable moves, according to Sen. Jack Reed (R-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But there’s more.
Hegseth’s New Rule of Engagement: No. 2—Suppress Facts
On September 19, Hegseth issued a new policy that every reporter in the Pentagon had to sign: They could access the building only if they agreed to publish information that was “approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”
Any reporter who violated the policy would face punishment ranging from the denial of press privileges to criminal prosecution. Reporters who failed to sign the new agreement by October 14 were required to turn in their press passes.
On October 6, Hegseth revised the policy so that it didn’t appear to be such a plainly unconstitutional prior restraint on a free press. The 21-page document clarified that reporters need not submit their materials in advance of publication. But it shifted the focus from punishing journalists who publish information that Hegseth doesn’t want disseminated to: 1) undermining journalists’ ability to gather it in the first place; and 2) inhibiting Defense Department employees from providing it.
Because Pete Hegseth can’t handle accountability or criticism, transparency is his enemy.
Specifically, the policy warned that journalists who “solicit” federal employees to disclose information that has not been approved for release may lose their press credentials. And according to the revised memo, “Solicitation may include direct communications with specific (Defense) personnel or general appeals, such as public advertisements or calls for tips encouraging (Defense) employees to share non-public (Defense) information.”
The Pentagon Press Association represents more than 100 news organizations that regularly cover the Pentagon. In a powerful statement, the Association said that Hegseth and his department were trying to “stifle a free press” with the new policy that “conveys an unprecedented message of intimidation to everyone within the DOD, warning against any unapproved interactions with the press and even suggesting it’s criminal to speak without express permission—which plainly, it is not.”
As Politico reported, it was “an unprecedented move that demands media outlets hand the department vast control over what they publish… The new rules give the Pentagon wide latitude to label journalists as security threats and revoke passes for those who obtain or publish information the agency says is unfit for public release.”
Every major news organization, including the conservative outlets Newsmax and Fox News (Hegseth’s former employer), refused to sign Hegseth’s document. Only the far-right, pro-Trump One America News agreed.
Here’s Fox News’ statement:
Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues. The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the US military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.
The Lessons
Two themes emerge from this sequence of events:
First, because Pete Hegseth can’t handle accountability or criticism, transparency is his enemy; and
Second, collective action to resist Trump administration assaults on the Constitution is possible.
Never give in. Never give up.
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'These Are Murders': Trump Condemned After Bombing Yet Another Boat Off Venezuelan Coast
"That's 27 lives taken without even a semblance of a legal justification under domestic or international law," said one critic of the boat strikes.
Oct 14, 2025
President Donald Trump, who in recent days has been lobbying to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, announced on Tuesday afternoon that he had ordered a lethal US military strike against yet another boat off the coast of Venezuela.
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday morning "ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking."
Trump then claimed that "intelligence" had "confirmed" that the boat was engaged in illegal drug trafficking, although he provided no evidence to back up this claim.
Six passengers aboard the boat were killed in the attack, the president claimed.
Trump has now repeatedly ordered the American military to use deadly force against boats in international waters that are allegedly engaged in drug smuggling. Many legal scholars, including some right-wing experts who in the past have embraced expansive views of presidential powers, consider such strikes illegal.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) condemned Trump's attack, which she noted was the fifth time the president had ordered a strike on a purported drug-trafficking vessel.
"Using the military to execute alleged criminals with no due process or input from Congress is brazenly unconstitutional and damaging to our democracy," she wrote in a social media post.
Attorney George Conway, a former Republican who broke with the party over its support of Trump, said there was absolutely zero doubt that Trump's strikes on the boats were acts of murder.
"That's 27 flat-out murders," he wrote in a post on X, referring to the total body count resulting from the president's boat strikes. "That's 27 lives taken without even a semblance of a legal justification under domestic or international law."
Kenneth Roth, former director of Human Rights Watch, said that Trump could face criminal prosecution for attacking the boats.
"Trump keeps ordering the summary killing of people in boats off the coast of Venezuela," Roth wrote. "Whether drug traffickers or not (we have no idea), these are murders. If on Venezuelan territory, the International Criminal Court could prosecute."
Richard Painter, who was an ethics lawyer in former President George W. Bush's White House, similarly described the strikes as "murder" and "a violation of US as well as international law."
According to The Associated Press, the strikes against boats have unnerved the Venezuelan government, which believes the US is preparing to launch a regime-change war against it. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino last week even went so far as to tell his citizens to be prepared for a potential invasion during a televised appearance.
"I want to warn the population: We have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the US empire operates is not normal,” he said, according to the AP. “It’s anti-political, anti-human, warmongering, rude, and vulgar."
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As Deadline Nears, News Outlets Have No Plans to Sign 'Flatly Unconstitutional' Pentagon Press Policy
The policy unveiled last month would bar reporters from seeking or reporting information that isn't explicitly authorized by the Trump administration.
Oct 14, 2025
News outlets that cover the US Department of Defense have until 5:00 pm Tuesday to sign an agreement put forward by the Pentagon last month that bars journalists from reporting any information that hasn't been explicitly authorized by the Trump administration—but several major organizations were resolute in stating they would not be agreeing to the terms.
Outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, NPR, and the trade publication Breaking Defense were among those that released statements on Monday saying they would not be signing the agreement released last month, which says journalists could be deemed a "safety or security risk" if they ask Pentagon personnel for sensitive information for reporting purposes.
Since the Department of Defense does not hold regular news briefings, many journalists who report on national security issues use their publications or social media accounts to call for tips from DOD personnel—a practice that would be treated as suspicious under the new policy and could limit outlets' access.
The Pentagon has said outlets and reporters who don't sign the document released last month will have 24 hours to turn in their press credentials—but many organizations suggested Monday they will continue reporting on the US military without credentials rather than signing.
Richard Stevenson, Washington Bureau chief for the Times, said in a statement posted on X that the new policy "threatens to punish [reporters] for ordinary news gathering protected by the First Amendment," and noted that the Pentagon's budget amounts to nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer money annually.
"The public has a right to know how the government and military are operating," said Stevenson.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has claimed the DOD is now called the Department of War, responded to the Times' statement and those of a number of other outlets with only a "hand waving" emoji.
It was the response Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray got when he said the newspaper "will continue to vigorously and fairly report on the policies and positions of the Pentagon and officials across the government."
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic—who was inadvertently added to a Pentagon Signal chat earlier this year and was sent messages regarding US plans to bomb Yemen—also said the new policy violates journalists' "First Amendment rights, and the rights of Americans who seek to know how taxpayer-funded resources and personnel are being deployed," while HuffPost editor-in-chief Whitney Snyder said the new restrictions are "flatly unconstitutional" and are "clearly aimed at snuffing out actual news-gathering at the nation’s largest and best-funded federal department.”
Right-wing outlets including The Washington Times and Newsmax, which called the new requirements "unnecessary and onerous," have also said they won't sign the new policy.
“Newsmax has no plans to sign the letter,” the network told the Times Monday. “We are working in conjunction with other media outlets to resolve the situation."
The new policy was unveiled months after Hegseth's office removed four news outlets from their long-held workspaces in the Pentagon, replacing them with right-wing One America News Network—which has agreed to the restrictions—and Breitbart News.
The DOD has also limited journalists' access to the building, barring them from most hallways without an official escort—a departure from decades of established rules that allowed reporters to travel through most of the Pentagon, except secure areas, without restrictions.
In addition to stifling the free speech of journalists, said the Pentagon Press Association (PPA) last week, the new policy also "conveys an unprecedented message of intimidation to everyone within the DOD," even those who share "entirely unclassified" information with reporters.
The restrictions warn "against any unapproved interactions with the press and even [suggest] it's criminal to speak without express permission—which plainly, it is not."
The PPA emphasized Monday that after pledging to oversee "the most transparent Department of Defense in history," the Trump administration has spent "an inordinate amount of time... systematically limiting access to information about the US military."
"Our members did nothing to create this disturbing situation," said the PPA. "Reporting by the Pentagon press corps involves issues that matter not just to the public, but also to the well-being of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians who protect America on a daily basis. Their potential expulsion from the Pentagon should be a concern to all."
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