Amid the ongoing Iran war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a video on social media Friday of a U.S. servicemember urging fellow servicemembers to be “combat ready” and ready for deployment, but over the weekend, the post soon backfired after critics pointed out it was five years old and featured a retired Marine who had been relieved of duty amid controversy.
Hegseth shared the video without context, leading onlookers to assume that the U.S. servicemember was speaking about the need to be “combat ready” as it relates to the Trump administration’s war against Iran. On Saturday, however, political commentator Micah Erfan revealed the context around the video, context that appeared to undercut Hegseth’s apparent effort to drum up support for war.
“This video is 5 years old and the guy in it was caught breaking into someone’s home,” Erfan wrote to his more than 57,000 followers on X.
The video shared by Hegseth features Christian Bull, a former sergeant major in the U.S. Marine Corps who enlisted in 1998. A former drill instructor in San Diego, California, Bull was relieved from duty due to “loss of confidence in his ability to lead” after being captured on video rummaging through a subordinate Marine’s home.
Bull was reportedly conducting a wellness check on his subordinate – Juan Gamez-Alzate – after he had not shown up for duty. However, Gamez-Alzate’s absence was due to an arrest over a traffic violation, which he claimed he had informed his sergeant major of.
“The Marine Corps aircraft group was notified that I was under custody, so why is [Bull] doing a welfare check when he knows that I’m in custody,” Gamez-Alzate said, the military digital media outlet Task & Purpose reported.
Hegseth having shared the video without context, however, led to an onslaught of ridicule from critics of all stripes.
“Too much alcohol has rotted your brain,” wrote Setareh Sadeqi, an Iranian professor and political commentator, in a social media post on X.
“You’re a drunkard buffoon,” wrote author and activist Amy Siskind to their more than 446,000 followers on X.I knew this guy looked familiar pic.twitter.com/zKnfrgZr27
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 21, 2026