Free Republic

When you’ve constructed a cartoon version of the world in your mind, what do you do when reality proves it wrong? If you’re the leftist establishment, you certainly don’t rethink your assumptions. Late Friday, New York Times columnist David French snarkily referred to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as a “walking MAGA caricature” on X. Four hours later, Hegseth’s troops were pounding Iran in an intricate series of strikes that left its evil regime reeling. The response to French — who has not withdrawn his sneer — was unsympathetic. My favorite: “Let’s have a contest . . . you and...

War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday outlined what he described as a "clear" three-part mission against Iran, insisting the conflict "is not endless" and sharply rejecting comparisons to past U.S. wars in the Middle East. Speaking during the first Pentagon briefing since U.S.-Israeli strikes began over the weekend, Hegseth said Operation Epic Fury has a narrowly defined objective: destroy Iran’s offensive missile capabilities, cripple its navy and prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine hold a press conference at 8 a.m. ET on March 2.

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday. Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure. About nine in 10 respondents said they had heard at least a little about the strikes, which began early on Saturday. The poll was conducted during the strikes on Iran by the U.S....

After Saturday's highly successful Israeli and U.S.-led decapitation strike on Iran's Islamist regime, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a statement letting the remaining mullahs know that we're not done.Hegseth started by briefly laying out the regime's offenses and pointing out that President Trump is finally doing what others before him would not."Overnight, on President Trump’s orders, the Department of War commenced OPERATION EPIC FURY — the most lethal, most complex, and most-precision aerial operation in history."The Iranian regime had their chance, yet refused to make a deal — and now they are suffering the consequences. For almost fifty years,...

Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Pentagon would be canceling troops' attendance at graduate programs at some of the nation's top universities, calling them "woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination." "Today, just like we did with Harvard, I am ordering the complete and immediate cancellation of all Department of War attendance at institutions like Princeton, Columbia, MIT, Brown, Yale and many others, starting next academic year, 2026-2027," Hegseth said in a video statement. "We cannot and will not continue to send our most capable officers, senior officers, into graduate programs that undermine the very values they...

A three-member panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed the U.S. military to reinstate its enlistment ban for HIV-positive people, ruling on Wednesday that the ban was based on “rational concerns.” The Department of Defense (DOD) has a “rational basis” to exclude people with HIV from enlisting in the armed forces, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote in his opinion, even those with undetectable viral loads whose treatment renders them unable to transmit the virus. The ruling reverses a Virginia district court’s 2024 injunction blocking the DOD’s enlistment ban, which had been in effect since the Pentagon instituted...

The left is engaged in an all-out attack on the policies of the Trump presidency. However, most of those attacks are not aimed at policies, per se; they are aimed at specific people and agencies. For instance, the nation remains in favor of getting rid of illegals, but, thanks to lies perpetrated by the left and their stenographers in the media, they are becoming dissatisfied with how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are operating. Krisit Noem and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are the targets of personal attacks. JD Vance has had his faith, his wife, and his marriage attacked. In...

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has ordered Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to remove Col. Dave Butler from his current job serving as chief of Army Public Affairs and chief advisor to Driscoll, who is currently in Geneva serving on the negotiating team to end the Ukraine war, Fox News has learned. Butler served as the head of public affairs for the Joint Chiefs when Gen. Mark Milley was chairman, and was slated to receive his first star. His name appeared for two years in a row on an Army list of 34 officers selected for promotion.

BREAKING: Judge blocks Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth's attempt to discipline/demote Sen. Mark Kelly over his comments re Trump-ordered boat strikes. Judge Richard Leon (GWBush) says admin is trying to strip 1st Amendment rights of military retirees. Doc: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2026cv0081-37

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not expected to attend a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels next month, two sources said, the second time in a row that a top Trump administration official skips a gathering of the military alliance. U.S. President Donald Trump has had a tense relationship with NATO and many of its other members, most recently over his desire to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of fellow alliance member Denmark. The sources, a U.S. official and a NATO diplomat, both said Hegseth would miss the Feb 12 gathering at NATO headquarters. U.S. Secretary of State Marco...

The mysterious “flying Pentagon” was spotted in Los Angeles, igniting a flurry of social media speculation and conspiracy theories about serious trouble ahead. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was aboard the aircraft, commonly known as the “Doomsday Plane” when it touched down at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday night. Hegseth is currently traveling on his “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, which aims to spotlight the U.S. defense industrial base and boost military recruiting, the Department of Defense confirmed to the Post. Also aboard the plane was right-wing internet personality Laura Loomer. Posting on social media, Loomer said Hegseth called enlistees at...

Pete Hegseth’s Saturday begins with personal training. The Secretary of War, @SecWar on your socials, is very fond of working out with the troops – something most defense secretaries have done without someone dutifully filming the experience for Instagram. Then he heads off to the Reagan National Defense Forum, the annual gathering of war hawks, policy nerds and defense contractors in Simi Valley, California. Hegseth, the veteran of the Global War on Terror, is there to fulfill his mission of denouncing the neocons. “Out with idealistic utopianism, in with hard-nosed realism,” he declares, insisting the United States will no longer...

On Monday, President Donald Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan announced a new series of what they called "Trump Class" battleships, a new initiative to revamp and restore the maritime industry and shore up America's maritime dominance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also in the Oval Office and offered remarks. Navy's new class of Large Surface Combatants: THE BATTLESHIP.The most lethal surface combatant ever constructed. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7AH5G4IJj5— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 22, 2025The president was flanked by images of the first Golden Fleet battleship, "The U.S.S. Defiant." Trump opened his remarks...

This mom reflects what most Americans think.

Secretary of Wars statements on reforms regards the chaplaincy in the DOW. https://www.facebook.com/reel/921466543875201/?mibextid=ZZyLBr

The criticisms against Sec. of War Pete Hegseth are “entirely political,” and anyone could have said the same things about “the Obama and Biden administration—and much more egregiously.” Hegseth has turned the U.S. military around in ways no one thought was possible, like getting the military back to meeting all of its recruiting quotas, explains Hanson during today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” Recruitment under the Biden administration fell “some 40 to 50,000 recruits,” and former Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin’s Pentagon used excuses like “people are out of shape, in gangs, using drugs, etc.”

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has pledged to toss “New Age notions” in America’s Chaplain Corps and make the military body “great again.” “In recent decades, its role has been degraded in an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism,” Hegseth said of the Chaplain Corps in video message released Tuesday night. “Chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” Hegseth said, adding “faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care.” Across all branches of the U.S. military, there are estimated to be 3,000 to 4,000 military chaplains. The Chaplain Corps was established in 1775...

Two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed during an attack Saturday near the city of Palmyra, Syria, according to the Pentagon. Three additional U.S. soldiers were wounded in the assault, the Pentagon added. President Trump in a social-media post called it “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria.” He warned “there will be very serious retaliation,” adding that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al Qaeda and Islamist rebel commander, “is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

To order the killing of people shipwrecked is clearly illegal according to military justice, according to our own military laws. If our pilots have to eject from a plane, we show that we don’t shoot people. We don’t shoot pilots that are descending by parachute. If we blow up a boat and there are survivors we don’t shoot those people. We don’t sidle up in a boat and take a nine millimeter pistol out, put it to their head and shoot them. Nobody would do that.” “But just because the missiles come from a long distance doesn’t make it any...