Murderer
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
As two men clung to a stricken, burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6, the Joint Special Operations commander followed the defense secretary’s order to leave no survivors.
A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.
Hegseth’s order, which has not been previously reported, adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers.
Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution.
The alleged traffickers pose no imminent threat of attack against the United States and are not, as the Trump administration has tried to argue, in an “armed conflict” with the U.S., these officials and experts say. Because there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men in the boats “amounts to murder,” said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign.
Even if the U.S. were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill all the boat’s occupants if they were no longer able to fight “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,” said Huntley, now director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law.
The elite counterterror group SEAL Team 6 led the attack, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing sensitive operations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Key Investigations & Allegations
1. Sexual misconduct allegation (Monterey, 2017)
A major investigation concerns an allegation that in October 2017 Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman at a hotel in Monterey, California. The New Yorker+2Reuters+2
The woman alleged Hegseth blocked her door, took her phone, and that she believed she might have been drugged. The New Yorker
The Monterey County District Attorney declined to bring charges in January 2018, stating proof beyond a reasonable doubt was not present. The New Yorker+1
Hegseth denied wrongdoing, saying any encounter was consensual. The New Yorker
There was a private settlement in or about 2020 with the woman and her husband under a non-disclosure agreement. The New Yorker+1
Why it matters: Because the Secretary of Defense is accountable for a massive organization with enormous national security responsibilities, questions about personal conduct and judgment become salient. At a Senate confirmation hearing, some senators raised concerns about whether his past conduct should disqualify him from the role. The Guardian
2. Use of encrypted app “Signal” and record-keeping / communications investigation
A significant ongoing investigation relates to Hegseth’s use of the messaging app Signal in March 2025, during which he was part of a chat group that reportedly discussed U.S. military operations (including strikes in Yemen). PBS+1
The United States Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General launched a probe to look into whether any aides were instructed to delete Signal messages, and whether communications rules (including federal records laws) were broken. PBS+1
According to some reporting, the chat included details of fighter‐jet launch times and target info—raising national security, classification, and oversight concerns. Politico
Why it matters: When a top defense official uses unofficial or encrypted messaging platforms for potentially sensitive matters — combined with questions about retention of records and internal governance — it raises legal, oversight, and transparency issues.
3. Internal leak investigations & polygraph use
Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon reportedly launched an internal investigation into alleged leaks to the media. In connection with this, polygraph tests were used (or considered) for staff including senior officials. The Washington Post
The use of polygraphs in this context drew concerns about due process, civil‐service protections, and the overall culture of oversight within the Pentagon under Hegseth.
Separately, his directive to overhaul the inspector general complaint process in the military services (including shortening timelines) was criticized as potentially limiting accountability. Federal News Network
Why it matters: A theme in the controversies is whether Hegseth’s leadership style emphasizes control and internal discipline in ways that may reduce transparency and oversight — especially in an organization as large and complex as the DOD.
4. Allegations from his time in veterans’ advocacy groups
According to a detailed article in The New Yorker, Hegseth’s tenure with Concerned Veterans for America included allegations of financial mismanagement, misuse of organization funds, excessive drinking on official trips, and creation of a hostile workplace environment. The New Yorker
Some defenders dispute parts of these allegations (for example, a trustee of the group said Hegseth left voluntary, not forced). New York Post
Why it matters: While these pre‐government roles are outside his current official capacity, critics argue they shed light on character, judgment, and management style — all relevant to the top job in the Pentagon.
Current Status & Open Questions
Hegseth remains in his post (as of November 2025) and the investigations described above are ongoing or unresolved.
Many of the records (such as the full FBI background check, or the full Signal‐chat logs) are not publicly disclosed. For example, a column described the background check as “half-baked and secret.” Los Angeles Times
Key questions remain:
What exactly was discussed in the Signal chat and whether classified/controlled information was improperly communicated.
Whether any of Hegseth’s directives (e.g., IG complaint-process changes) reduce accountability in ways deemed harmful by oversight bodies.
Whether the sexual misconduct allegations, even without criminal charges, raise issues of fitness for office based on informal standards of leadership.
How Hegseth’s leadership decisions affect the culture of the military and Pentagon bureaucracy, especially given his statements on women, diversity, and military roles.
- A Democratic senator has criticized Secretary of State Marco Rubio for paying $7.5 million to the government of Equatorial Guinea — one of the most corrupt governments in the world — to agree to take deportees from the United States who are not its citizens.
In the days before the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, the president of that country demanded something for himself: the return of nine MS-13 gang leaders in U.S. custody. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a March 13 phone call with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, promised the request would be fulfilled, according to officials familiar with the conversation. But there was one obstacle: Some of the MS-13 members Bukele wanted were “informants” under the protection of the U.S. government, Rubio told him. To deport them to El Salvador, Attorney General Pam Bondi would need to terminate the Justice Department’s arrangements with those men, Rubio said. He assured Bukele that Bondi would complete that process and Washington would hand over the MS-13 leaders.
Foreign policy!
The deal would give Bukele possession of individuals who threatened to expose the alleged deals his government made with MS-13 to help achieve El Salvador’s historic drop in violence, officials said. For the Salvadoran president, a return of the informants was viewed as critical to preserving his tough-on-crime reputation. It was also a key step in hindering an ongoing U.S. investigation into his government’s relationship with MS-13, a gang famous for displays of excessive violence in the United States and elsewhere.
Hegseth is a much more interesting case.
“This is, after all, a man who wrote a book called ‘American Crusade,’ which The Guardian described as ‘depicting Islam as a natural, historic enemy of the west; presents distorted versions of Muslim doctrine in Great Replacement-style racist conspiracy theories; treats leftists and Muslims as bound together in their efforts to subvert the U.S.; and idolizes medieval crusaders.”
Parton warns that evangelical Hegseth embraces an extreme form of far-right Christian fundamentalism. In this book, the former Fox News host calls for “followers of Christ to take up the sword in defense of their faith.”
“Hegseth is also a member of an extreme far-right sect called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches that also believes in militant Christianity,” Parton warns. “It’s heavily influenced by reconstructionism, a theology that religion scholar Julie Ingersoll describes as believing ‘it’s the job of Christians to exercise dominion over the whole world.’ In short, Hegseth is a serious Christian nationalist, and there could be nothing more satisfying for him than to muster a fighting force to wage war against Muslims in a foreign land in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Parton continues, “It sounds medieval, and it is…. Whether they will follow through on sending troops to defend Christians is anyone’s guess. At some point, one might hope that a few of the Christians who are clamoring for the U.S. to go into Nigeria with ‘guns-a-blazing’ might spare a thought for their fellow followers of Christ who are being terrorized every single day right here in America at the hands of an oppressive government that is deporting them to face certain persecution.”
Hegseth sends goodbye emoji to news outlets protesting press policy
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday derided media outlets that said their reporters would not sign the Pentagon’s restrictive new press policy, using a goodbye handwave emoji in responding to social media posts announcing their decisions.The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN and NPR have all said their journalists would not sign the new paperwork that says they will abide by or acknowledge they understand the new rules around Pentagon access. Many posted their statements on social media.
Hegseth responded to several such posts – including one made by The Atlantic, which said they “fundamentally oppose” the restrictions – with the goodbye emoji. He responded in the same manner to a statement from The Washington Post, which said the policy undercuts First Amendment protections “by placing unnecessary constraints on gathering and publishing information.” And he used the same emoji above a post from The New York Times, which asserted the Pentagon’s rules threaten to punish journalists for “ordinary news gathering protected by the First Amendment.” Hegseth has frequently displayed animosity towards the press, including media outlets as a whole and individual journalists, and has steadily restricted press access and accommodations in the Pentagon. Despite his spokespeople frequently boasting about transparency, Hegseth’s office removed four outlets from their Pentagon workspaces in late January, replacing them with media outlets that have given favorable coverage to the Trump administration, including One America News Network and Breitbart News. When reporters complained to officials about the move, they removed four additional news outlets, including The Hill, from their desks. The journalists removed from their desks were still allowed to work in the building, though Hegseth’s office also made it difficult by restricting reporters from accessing the Pentagon’s press briefing room – one of the few places in the building with wireless internet to use for filing stories. In May, Hegseth banned journalists from most hallways of the Pentagon without an official escort. The decision was considered extreme, as reporters had had access throughout much of the building for decades without being monitored. Secure or restricted spaces have always been off-limits to the press without official permission. Now with the new Pentagon press policy, journalists are technically not barred from investigating, reporting or publishing stories on the U.S. military using information deemed sensitive or unclassified, but they could be deemed “a security or safety risk” should they even ask DOD personnel for such information, according to a draft of the rules. The Pentagon describes solicitation as including calls for tips, encouraging military personnel to share non-public information, as many reporters do via their publications or personal social media platforms, as routine Defense Department news briefings are nonexistent. The Pentagon Press Association last week said Hegseth and other officials have been “systematically limiting access to information about the U.S. military” since the start of the year. Even several right-leaning news organizations have balked at the policy, including the Washington Times and Newsmax, the latter of which has said it believes the requirements “are unnecessary and onerous,” and that its reporters won’t sign. Beat reporters now have until Tuesday to sign the new rules or give up their press passes by Wednesday. Editors and journalists have said they will continue to cover the U.S. military even without press credentials.- Conservative Christian views: Hegseth is a devout evangelical Christian known for his outspoken conservative political views.
- Past anti-gay rhetoric: While a student at Princeton, Hegseth contributed to an editorial that stated “the homosexual lifestyle is abnormal and immoral”.
- Multiple marriages: Hegseth has been married three times and has multiple children with his second and third wives.
- Multiple misconduct allegations: Hegseth has faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and excessive drinking during his career. A former colleague reported that while running a veterans’ non-profit, Hegseth and other leaders would “sexually pursue the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the ‘party girls’ and the ‘not party girls'”.
10-2-2025
Tattoo’s
Since Hegseth is making the military’s physical APPEARANCE code (“no fatsos or beardos”) mandatory in the armed services, no matter what the rank, this needs to be noted:
The U.S. Army’s tattoo policy, outlined in AR 670-1, prohibits tattoos on the head, face, and neck (above the t-shirt collar) but allows certain visible tattoos on the hands, neck, and behind the ears under specific size and placement restrictions as detailed in Army Directive 2022-09.
Tattoos on arms and legs are permissible as long as they are not visible above the collar in the Army Combat Uniform.
ALL tattoos, regardless of location or size, are PROHIBITED if their content includes extremist, indecent, sexist, or racist symbols or words.
The following types of tattoos or brands are prejudicial to good order and discipline and are, therefore, prohibited anywhere on a soldier’s body
Extremist: Extremist tattoos or brands are those affiliated with, depicting, or symbolizing extremist philosophies, organizations, or activities. Extremist philosophies, organizations and activities are those which advocate racial, gender or ethnic hatred or intolerance; advocate, create, or engage in illegal discrimination based on race, color, gender, ethnicity, religion, or national origin; or advocate violence or other unlawful means of depriving individual rights under the U.S. Constitution, and Federal or State law.
He even mentions tatoos are unacceptable to the warrior ethos. Do tell. By the way, do you know why Hegseth was essentially kicked out of the military? It’s not because he’s fat, or anything. It wasn’t even the alcohol. This is how his body looks like:
The Jerusalem Cross – one large cross surrounded by 4 smaller crosses. The symbol dates back to the Crusades, but has more recently been linked to extremist Christian nationalists. In 2021, Hegseth was one of several National Guard members ordered to stand down from Joe Biden’s inauguration, and he himself has said in interviews that it was due to this tattoo.
Hegseth was flagged as a white supremacist threat based on his tatoos and they indeed are one step away from mounting the Sonnenrad or Swastika. That cross on his boob is the Jerusalem cross of crusaders. Modern use is for Christian supremacy and hatred of Islam.
Hegseth is salty, because he’s not fit for the US military. So now that he has the chance he wants to remodel it into an organization by white males, for white males. Cis heterosexual white males that is, none of that gay stuff.
Hegseth also has the words “Deus Vult,” Latin for “God will it,” on his arm. Similar to the Jerusalem Cross, the “Deus Vult” is linked to the First Crusade in the early 1000s, when it was supposedly a battle cry for Christian invaders. ”Deus Vultll” has enjoyed popularity with members of the alt-right because of its perceived representation of a white Christian (i.e. Catholic) medieval past and its militant supremacy over Islam and other religions.
The same arm features a cross with a sword that references the New Testament verse Matthew 10:34, which reads “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Hegseth later added the word Yahweh in Hebrew lettering.
Hegseth said the word means “Jesus in Hebrew,” which is wrong. The phrase, meaning “I am”, is actually the name of God (the Father) in the Old Testament.
He also has the Greek symbols “Chi Ro”, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, meaning Christ is “the beginning and the end.”
The Roman Emperor Constantine, so the story goes, had a dream the night before a battle in 312 CE, telling him he would conquer if he had this symbol on his shield. He did, and Constantine went on to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire – the beginning of Roman Catholicism.
Hegseth’s upper arm is decorated with a reversed 13 star American flag with an AR-15 rifle making up the bottom stripe.
Religion
Hegseth says he’s proud to be part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, an archconservative network of Christian congregations. Founded in 1998, CREC is a network of more than 130 churches in the United States and around the world. CREC ascribes to a strict version of Reformed theology, rooted in the teachings of 16th-century Protestant reformer John Calvin, that preaches dominion over all as sects of society.
One of his “religion’s principles” is “liberty of conscience, honoring and preserving human life from conception to natural death” and yet he is espousing killing humans.
Another principal is there are only two sexes and those who, “identify as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders, whether in sexually active relationships or not, is unbiblical and need to “repent”and“ receive ongoing pastoral care.”
Hegseth recently made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about CREC, showing its leader arguing that women should not have the right to vote.
Women within CREC churches cannot hold church leadership positions, and married women are to submit to their husbands
Actions as United States Secretary of Defense
Women
Hegseth has questioned women serving in combat roles in the military, and has removed high ranking women from Pentagon leadership positions. His speech Tuesday says all military members must take the same physical tests regardless of gender, and pass “the highest male standard”.
He said that physical standards altered in 2015 “when combat arms standards were changed to ensure females could qualify” will be returned to their original form.
Hegseth fired the Navy’s top admiral, who is a woman, by saying the officers he relieved were part of a “broken culture”.
Race
Hegseth said this also included standards he claimed were “manipulated to hit racial quotas,” were “just as unacceptable.” His extremist white supremacist views were proudly on display. “No more identity months, DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] offices ….. As I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, we are done with that shit” He defended his firings of flag officers, including the top U.S. general, who is Black, and the Navy’s top admiral, who is a woman, by saying the officers he relieved were part of a “broken culture”.
It should be remembered that the first weeks of his leadership of the Department of Defense saw websites stripped of all references to people of color. Even the Tuskegee Airmen’s page disappeared.
Winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor had “DEI medal” stamped across their pictures. He is not just trying to make the Military racial neutral, he is reestablishing white supremacy, by clearly dismissing honors achieved by minorities as consolation prizes.
KKK
A former pastor’s comments: In August 2025, The Guardian reported that a former pastor in the classical Christian education network that Hegseth also belongs to, Josh Haymes, made comments suggesting that mass immigration is a plot to destroy “Anglo-Protestant culture”.- Comparison to KKK ideology: Tim Whitaker, co-host of the New Evangelicals podcast, drew a comparison between Haymes’s comments and the rhetoric used by the KKK, which also preaches against mass immigration.
- Hegseth’s association with the church network: The former pastor’s comments drew scrutiny to Hegseth due to his ties to the same movement.
The KKK was – and still is – a CHRISTIAN organization. Its racist agenda is based on the notion that Jesus and Adam looked like them, because the Bible says they are all “made in God’s image”. Therefore, anybody who doesn’t match THEM is something other than true humans – the “others” outside the Garden of Eden, that Cain feared, when God cast him out. God put his “mark” upon Cain, and many extremist conservative sects teach that this was “a skin of darkness”,
- • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
RELIGION (cont)
Hegseth he made clear that his creed contains no Christian compassion – only terror, outside of law, and outside of morality. “We don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize hunt and kill the enemies of our country.
No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement. Just maximum lethality.
No International Rules of Engagement (ROE) which are military directives that define how and when force can be used during war, and they are rooted in the principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Key IHL principles governing ROE include distinction (targeting only combatants), proportionality (ensuring military advantage outweighs civilian harm), and humanity (preventing unnecessary suffering). Military ROE provide a framework for applying these laws, requiring combatants to differentiate between civilians and combatants, avoid attacking protected sites like hospitals, and treat prisoners humanely.
American Christian nationalism involves four overlapping movements. Among them are evangelicals who view Trump as a political champion; a charismatic movement that sees politics as part of a larger spiritual war; a Catholic movement envisioning a muscular government promoting traditional morality; and Hegseth’s faction, influenced by Christian Reconstructionist ideas, according to a report by PBS.
One of the CREC principles is “refusing vaccination or gene therapies and refusal of mandatory medical procedures” and “refuse any medical procedure or product for known or unknown side effects, experimental or emergency uses, potential involvement in fetal cell lines whether in development or testing, or medical and/or political corruption or coercion.”
It should be noted that although he feels that others should adhere to his strict religious and moral standards, Hegseth himself has been married three times and divorced twice, and incidents surrounding his notorious alcohol consumption and subsequent behavior and actions have been well documented.
Text of the Email That Pete Hegseth’s Mother Sent Him
Penelope Hegseth sent the email to her son in 2018 as he was in the middle of a divorce from his wife, Samantha.
Nov. 29, 2024The following is the text of the email that Penelope Hegseth sent to her son, Pete Hegseth, on April 30, 2018. One sentence was redacted by The New York Times for privacy reasons.
I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.
I am not a saint, far from it.. so don’t throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.
Sam is a good mother and a good person (under the circumstances that you created) and I know deep down you know that. For you to try to label her as “unstable” for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you? She did not ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did Meredith.
I know you think this is one big competition and that we have taken her side… bunk… we are on the side of good and that is not you. (Go ahead and call me self-righteous, I dont’ care)
Don’t you dare run to her and cry foul that we shared with us… that’s what babies do. It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women
We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character. I don’t want to write emails like this and never thought I would. If it damages our relationship further, then so be it, but at least I have said my piece. [Redacted]
And yes, we are praying for you (and you don’t deserve to know how we are praying, so skip the snarky reply)
I don’t want an answer to this… I don’t want to debate with you. You twist and abuse everything I say anyway. But… On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself…
Mom
1. Extreme Partisanship
Promotes division: Critics say Hegseth often frames politics as a battle of “real Americans” vs. “the Left,” which deepens polarization and discourages compromise.
Echoes partisan propaganda: His commentaries on Fox News and public speeches frequently repeat unverified claims or conspiracy narratives that benefit certain political figures rather than promote factual analysis.
2. Anti-Expert and Anti-Science Rhetoric
Dismissal of public health measures: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hegseth downplayed expert guidance on masks and vaccines, which many health officials said undermined efforts to protect lives.
“I don’t really care about the data” remark: He once said on live TV that he doesn’t rely on data to form opinions — a statement critics use as evidence that he prioritizes ideology over facts.
3. Promotion of Christian Nationalism
Merging religion with politics: Hegseth frequently calls for America to be governed by “biblical values,” which critics say undermines the constitutional separation of church and state.
Exclusionary worldview: His rhetoric sometimes paints non-Christian or secular Americans as “unpatriotic,” which alienates millions of citizens.
4. Uncritical Defense of Trump and Authoritarian Tendencies
Loyalty over accountability: He consistently defends Donald Trump, even amid legal or ethical controversies, promoting the idea that loyalty matters more than rule of law.
Disdain for democratic institutions: Critics note he has attacked the FBI, media, and courts whenever they oppose his political side, eroding public trust in democratic checks and balances.
5. Militaristic and Aggressive Messaging
Glorifying violence: Some of his language about culture wars and “fighting for America” has been criticized for sounding militaristic or encouraging confrontation rather than civic debate.
Simplistic patriotism: Critics say his framing of patriotism as blind allegiance, rather than critical love of country, is unhealthy for democracy.