Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned what was supposed to be a briefing on ongoing U.S. operations against Iran into a bizarre harangue against the country’s free press in which he compared journalists to a group of ancient religious scholars who are often portrayed as enemies of Jesus in the New Testament.
The ex-television presenter was roughly five minutes into a ten-minute monologue to reporters in the Pentagon briefing room on Thursday when he abruptly shifted from taunting Iran’s government about how U.S. forces remain “locked and loaded” if negotiations to extend a ten-day ceasefire fall through to chastising journalists for being insufficiently sycophantic towards the Trump administration and the war effort.
“I just can't help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist pedaling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,” he said. “Sometimes it's hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on — it's incredibly unpatriotic.”
Hegseth continued his diatribe by accusing the Pentagon press corps of having “bent over backwards” to “explain away” the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that was carried out by the Biden administration under terms negotiated by President Donald Trump and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Trump’s first term.
He claimed journalists had exhibited bias by calling the withdrawal “the greatest airlift in history,” though his criticism appeared to be a mischaracterization of reporting on the U.S. Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation during the fall of Kabul that was described by Air Force officials at the time as the largest airlift operation in U.S. history.
But the former Fox weekend anchor’s attack on the press took a strange biblical turn a moment later when he recalled how his Sunday church service last week had focused on a passage in which a group of Pharisees, who he called “the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time,” had visited a synagogue to watch Jesus heal a man with a “withered hand.”
“They were there to witness, to write everything down, to report, but their hearts were hardened, even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn't matter ... I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees, not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy Trump hating press, your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors,” Hegseth said.
He continued, accusing reporters of having “hardened hearts” that “are calibrated only to impugn” and complaining that reporters aren’t focused on “the historic success of our troops, the courage of this President, and this historic moment for a deal that could end the Iranian nuclear threat.”
“Where's the coverage of the new spirit in the country? The new spirit in the ranks, the surge of Americans wanting to join the greatest military in the world? Nothing from the fake news, ... you only seek the negative, earning each and every day the fake news label. But the American people with goodness in their hearts see past the Pharisees in our press, they see the goodness,“ he said.
Hegseth’s biblical attack on his former industry was the latest in a series of diatribes against journalists that he has delivered at each of the briefings he has conducted alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Dan Caine.
His tenure atop the Pentagon has been marked by non-stop hostility towards the press, including an ongoing attempt to banish journalists from workspace that has been set aside for their use for decades.
The defense secretary’s attempt to cast journalists as antagonists of Jesus comes as President Trump is under increasing fire for his repeated use of AI-generated, religiously-themed images to promote himself.
Earlier this week, Trump drew outrage from even some of his most fervent allies by posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus to his Truth Social feed during a late-night posting and reposting spree in which he also lashed out at Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born priest who serves as the 267th Bishop of Rome, making him head of the Catholic Church.
He later deleted the post after intense criticism from religious conservatives and other right-wing figures, but days later reposted another AI-generated image in which he was being embraced by Jesus, with the two men shown bathed in light in front of an American flag backdrop.
Ironically, Hegseth denounced a different use of Jesus-themed AI content when he was asked by reporters about an Iranian government video showing Jesus killing Trump and casting him into hell, calling it “disgusting and detached from reality.”
The repeated invocation of religious imagery by Hegseth and Trump is taking place amid the Trump administration’s extraordinary feud with Leo, the first American to serve as the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both lashed out at the pontiff in recent days after he criticized world leaders who spend on wars rather than focusing on peace.
Speaking in Cameroon, Leo decried leaders who used religious language to justify wars and urged a "decisive change of course" in unusually forceful remarks.
"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild," he said.
"They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found."
Leo also appeared to hit back at Hegseth’s remarks without mentioning his name in a tweet posted shortly after the defense secretary’s press conference, writing: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
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