Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is discovering that he can change the players, but he can't change the game as one of the more prominent conservative “reporters” he has allowed to cover the Pentagon is already giving him grief less than a week in.
The embattled Donald Trump appointee effectively purged the mainstream media from covering the Pentagon if they didn't agree to highly restrictive rules.
In their place, the Pentagon has allowed in what the Guardian has labeled, “mouthpieces for Trump,” which includes, “dozens of rightwing media figures and organizations who agreed to the strict rules, including Laura Loomer, a Trump confidante who has described herself as a ‘proud Islamophobe’; LindellTV, an online streaming channel founded by Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist and CEO of MyPillow; and Matt Gaetz, a disgraced former congressman turned host at One America News Network.”
With Hegseth facing a firestorm accompanied by accusations of war crimes from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, the honeymoon with Loomer — who has a history of urging Trump to fire aides and government officials she feels are “disloyal" — looks to be on shaky ground.
On Monday, as the debate rages about drug interdiction and how far the Pentagon can legally go, Loomer weighed in on X, writing, “What’s really interesting about the strikes in Venezuela is the fact that only 8% of the drug supply that comes into the US is coming from Venezuela. Most of it is cocaine. I have no sympathy for narcoterrorists being killed. It’s just worth noting that over 90% of the drug supply coming into the US is coming in from Mexico, especially the fentanyl.”
“Fentanyl isn’t being manufactured in Venezuela,” she asserted. “Given that 90% of the drugs coming into the US that are killing Americans are coming from Mexico, when can we expect to see air strikes on the Mexican cartels in Mexico? Or what about China, since China produces the chemicals that are used to make fentanyl in Mexico?”
Needling the Pentagon chief, she baited him with, “It makes a lot of sense to start with neutralizing the Mexican cartels since that’s where most of the damage is coming from. It makes me wonder why this hasn’t been done… surely the @DeptofWar knows where all of the Mexican drug lords live.”