All posts tagged "department of defense"

Hegseth's telling answer to reporter said to mean he 'needs to go': 'He never denied that'

Department of Defense head Pete Hegseth must be removed from his post as soon as possible, according to a political analyst who shared a telling moment.

Hegseth has emerged as a vocal advocate for aggressive military action and weaponizing Christian theology to justify warfare. Hegseth has implemented controversial military policies, including grooming standard directives and bans on elite university graduate programs.

A press conference held by Hegseth yesterday (April 24) saw the Department of Defense head questioned over the ongoing war in Iran. TMZ reporter Jacob Wasserman asked, "I’ve heard you talk a lot about bombing people and places. And when you give these orders to carry out this extreme level of violence, what’s going through your mind and your body? Do you have, like, an adrenaline rush? Are you scared? Do you feel like you’re on a power trip?"

Hegseth replied, "My only thought process is to ensure that our warfighters have everything they need to be successful, defeat and destroy the enemy, and they come home.

"I want them to feel empowered, to have every authority they need within our rules and within our law to bring maximum violence to the enemy, because war is violent, war requires doing difficult things, but I want our people to feel empowered, so it’s our guys that come home and their guys that do not."

Heather Delaney Reese, writing in her Substack, claimed that Hegseth's response to this question is enough to warrant firing him from his post. President Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi recently, and Reese believes Hegseth should follow.

Reese wrote, "He never answered it. He never denied that this war is making him feel powerful or that it gives him pause when he thinks of the human toll for not just our military and their families but also the civilians caught in the gunfire.

"His lack of answer makes him exactly the wrong person for this job. His lack of care for other people, for the cost of war, and his constant grandiose positioning are dangerous qualities to be held by a man who has enabled the commander in chief to act out violently in other countries, on boats in international waters, and of course, on citizens back here at home.

"Trump has already fired three cabinet members and multiple people right below them in their departments. Pete Hegseth needs to go next."

Pete Hegseth's chief of staff spread drinking rumors at Pentagon for one unusual reason

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's top aide reportedly gossiped with his colleagues that he and the Pentagon boss had worn disguises and went out for drinks together — an alleged plot to try to discover potential leakers inside the department, according to a report Friday from The New York Post.

Ricky Buria, Hegseth's chief of staff, started spreading the rumor in early 2025 and created a story that he and Hegseth had evaded the secretary's security detail while at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City, the outlet reported.

"There’s no proof that the great escape actually happened, but the tale has reverberated within the administration and stoked continued frustration with Buria’s powerful role leading US military policy," according to The Post.

"Many people close to or inside the Trump administration say they believe Buria, a Biden administration holdover who formed a fast friendship with Hegseth, was ham-handedly attempting to catch leakers — but put the secretary at risk of scandal in the meantime," The Post reported.

The tale was apparently shared so often that sources told the outlet they were unsure how they could actually track who disseminated the information.

Hegseth has been accused of alleged drunken misbehavior in the past and had publicly said before his January 2025 Senate confirmation that he vowed not to drink "a drop of alcohol" in order to have a "fully dialed-in Pete" in the nation's top defense role.

A source told The Post he was shocked when Buria told him the story at the Pentagon office just months later, in late March or April.

“My first impression of it was he was trying to figure out if I was going to tell other people. But then I come to find out a couple months later that he was running around telling people,” the source told The Post.

Hegseth has 'threatened' military chaplains who refuse to back his Iran war plans: report

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has alienated a critical group within the military establishment — religious leaders and chaplains — by weaponizing Christianity to justify the Iran war and creating an atmosphere of fear for those who refuse to comply with his ideological demands.

According to Washington Post analyst Michelle Boorstein, Hegseth's inflammatory rhetoric at a recent Pentagon prayer service has triggered serious alarm among military chaplains and senior officials who view his approach as a dangerous departure from Pentagon norms.

At the prayer service, Hegseth invoked religious language to justify military violence, saying: "Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision … and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy."

The language represents a troubling shift in how the Pentagon frames military operations, according to military leadership.

"The Pentagon's shift from previous historical norms is dangerous, according to multiple former high-ranking military officials, heads of chaplain corps, some veterans groups, current Pentagon staff and current officers," Boorstein wrote.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Randy Manner, who trained hundreds of interfaith military chaplains and served as second-in-command at the National Guard from 2011 to 2012, has been hearing from active-duty chaplains about systematic retaliation.

"Manner said he has talked with 'dozens and dozens' of active-duty chaplains in recent weeks who say those who don't identify with Hegseth 'are being marginalized.' They feel they can't voice their concerns to their own superiors, and feel their work as the primary advocate for troops' spiritual, mental, and moral health is being threatened."

The situation has become dystopian. "I've had people tell me they're not included in staff meetings," Manner added.

Pentagon insiders describe the atmosphere as chilling. An anonymous Department of Defense source characterized the environment as "terrifying," noting that personnel working under Hegseth fear being punished or fired for failing to embrace his Christian nationalist worldview.

An unnamed member of a recent Joint Chiefs chairman's leadership team articulated the constitutional threat directly: "I don't approve of cramming your religious faith down people's throats, and when the top of the chain couches these operations in this hyper-Christian tone, it flies in the face of the freedom of religion that the Constitution enshrines and that our men and women in uniform sign up to defend."

Pete Hegseth's staff laughs at him behind his back with offensive new nickname: insider

Pete Hegseth has been given a new nickname by staffers comparing him to a former Department of Defense head.

The current DoD chief and long-time Donald Trump supporter has been branded "Dumb McNamara," a reference to Robert McNamara. McNamara served as the Department of Defense head to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and it seems the comparison is not at all favorable.

The Zeteo Substack post, First Draft, reported Hegseth had received the nickname as a result of the recent undertakings of the Trump admin in Iran. The nickname for Hegseth has spread from various staffers and officials, who are now calling the Iran war "Hegseth's war".

The "Hegseth's war" term coined by insiders marks another McNamara comparison, with the Vietnam War referred to as "McNamara's war" at the time. The nickname has spread rapidly, according to The Bulwark team.

"However, the nickname 'Dumb McNamara' has spread within the US government due to Hegseth’s cheerleading of the war and bombing blitzes – overzealous bloodlust and enthusiasm for military fiasco that reminds American officials of, well, a very stupid version of Robert McNamara," they wrote. "'We negotiate with bombs,' Hegseth said Tuesday. 'You have a choice, as we loiter over the top of Tehran.'

"It’s Trump’s war, to be sure, but as things continue to go south, it’s easy to see the president’s Iran bloodbath getting framed as 'Hegseth’s war,' in the way Vietnam famously became 'McNamara’s war.'"

Despite his comments on the Iran war, Hegseth has been thrown under the bus by the Trump administration for the current failures.

Trump was taking press questions after swearing in new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office when he gave a frank response about the status of the ongoing military conflict in the Middle East, which has now reached its fourth week and left 13 troops dead and 232 service members wounded.

"I don’t want to say this, but I have to. I said to Pete and General Caine, I think this thing [the war] is going to be settled very soon. They said, 'Oh, that’s too bad.' Pete didn’t want it to be settled," Trump said.

Pentagon bans photographers for ‘unflattering’ photos of Pete Hegseth: report

The Pentagon apparently shut out photographers from attending press briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war in Iran after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's staff decided recent photos of him were "unflattering," The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The images from the March 2 briefing came after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed during a joint military strike on Feb. 28. It was the first time Hegseth had appeared in the briefing room and spoken to press since June 26.

The Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images were among the media groups that sent photographers to the briefing with Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"But after they published photos — which have broad reach because they are licensed by publications globally — members of Hegseth’s staff told colleagues that they did not like the way that the secretary looked," two people who were familiar with the decision told The Post. They asked to speak under the condition of anonymity, citing concerns over potential retaliation.

Hegseth's aides then barred photographers from joining two other briefings at the Pentagon on March 4 and March 10.

“In order to use space in the Pentagon Briefing Room effectively, we are allowing one representative per news outlet if uncredentialed, excluding pool," Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a written statement. "Photographs from the briefings are immediately released online for the public and press to use. If that hurts the business model for certain news outlets, then they should consider applying for a Pentagon press credential.”

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has had a contentious relationship with the media, often dismissing critical reporting as "fake news" and maintaining President Donald Trump's adversarial stance toward mainstream press outlets. The Pentagon under Hegseth's leadership has faced criticism from press organizations and watchdog groups for restricting media access, limiting transparency on military operations and favoring sympathetic news coverage over balanced reporting.

Trump's minions just revealed what they really think about dead American soldiers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent his confirmation hearings promising senators he’d stop drinking. Based on his news conference about the Iran war on Wednesday, that might not be such a great idea.

Reporting on dead American soldiers, Hegseth suggested, is becoming the “narrative.” The public, he said, should “cut through the noise” and focus on the mission.

The “noise,” in this case, is six American lives.

On Sunday, an Iranian drone struck a U.S. facility in Kuwait. The victims were Army reservists assigned to a logistics command. Their names, ranks, and ages:

Sgt. Declan Coady, 20
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39
Capt. Cody Khork, 35
Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42
Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45
CW3 Robert Marzan, 54.

Hegseth’s complaint was that their deaths were dominating coverage of the war. During Wednesday’s White House briefing, when CNN’s Kaitlan Collins read Hegseth’s words back to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Leavitt didn’t flinch.

“The press does only want to make the president look bad,” she said. “That’s a fact.”

To this administration, a dead sergeant from West Des Moines is not a tragedy. He’s a political liability. News reporting on his demise is evidence of bias.

Consider the source. According to a sworn affidavit submitted to the Senate under penalty of perjury by a former sister-in-law, Hegseth once had to be carried out of a Minneapolis strip club by his own brother — drunk, in uniform, during a National Guard drill weekend. Wearing a uniform while intoxicated is a violation of military law.

NBC News also reported that 10 current and former Fox News colleagues said they had to “babysit” Hegseth before appearances because he smelled of alcohol. And a whistleblower complaint from his tenure at the veterans nonprofit Concerned Veterans for America described multiple occasions when he had to be removed from events after drinking to incapacitation.

It is some new pinnacle of irony that a man who required his own “babysitters” at Fox News is now lecturing the press on professional conduct and what is worthy of the front page. It would be more defensible had his diatribe been attributable to an altered state.

But this is a very recent discovery. Travel back to January 2024. Three American soldiers were killed in a drone attack in Jordan while Joe Biden was president. Republicans didn’t tell reporters to ignore the story. They blasted it across every microphone they could find.

Donald Trump called the deaths “the consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) demanded “devastating retaliation.” No one complained the coverage was unfair to the commander in chief.

Go back to August 2021. After the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Republicans spent years invoking those 13 deaths. They held hearings. They issued subpoenas. They put Gold Star families on stage at the Republican National Convention. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the loss of life was grounds for impeachment.

The political rule seemed simple: When American troops die, the president must answer for it.

That rule apparently changed on Inauguration Day.

Trump launched a war with Iran that already has American casualties and, by his own admission, will produce more.

“Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends,” Trump said Sunday. “That’s the way it is.”

For the White House, that may be a strategic reality. For the family of Nicole Amor — a Minnesota mother of two who was days away from returning home — it is not simply “the way it is.” It is the destruction of their world.

The American press has reported every U.S. combat death for decades, under Republicans and Democrats alike. Those stories are not a partisan narrative. They are the public record of war.

The six names this week are Declan, Nicole, Cody, Noah, Jeffrey and Robert. Reporting them is not an attempt to make a president look bad, no matter how much Trump’s shameless sycophants whine.

It’s journalism.

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529 million reasons Trump and his bloodthirsty Camelot of buffoons dragged us into war

Do you ever get the feeling we’re being played like an out-of-tune violin, every minute of each day?

Take this war in Iran and its first week of airstrikes. Our clueless president and his even more bloodthirsty and incompetent Secretary of “War” are offended that people keep asking what the conflict is about and why we launched it when they don’t seem to have the first clue themselves.

First, it was about stopping Iran from developing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S.

Then it surrounded a need for “regime change,” that ridiculously benign euphemism used instead of “violent government overthrow,” which sounds so much messier.

Then it was just basically, “They’re an evil, repressive country that’s the greatest state sponsor of terrorism.”

Finally, it became, “We’re looking to bring liberation to Iranian citizens.”

As if.

The ever-changing series of justifications leaves me wondering what’s next. Maybe, “Israel was upset that Iran is positioned just in front of it alphabetically and sought help in bombing Iran until it agreed to change its name back to Persia.”

It’s clear these morons had no plan, other than, “Blow up a lot of stuff because explosions are cool!” It’s as if Beavis and Butthead are running U.S. intelligence. There is no plan for the Iranian people. Basically, the marching orders are to bombard and eventually depart, leaving mass destruction and abandonment behind.

Atta’ way to build global goodwill, America!

Of course, attempting to distract from the Epstein files has to be near the top of any list of actual unstated rationalizations for this disaster, which is why I’ve dubbed the campaign, supposedly Operation Epic Fury, “Operation Epstein Suppression.”

What’s really going on remains anyone’s guess. Whatever pops into Trump’s head becomes the defining rationale until the following minute/hour/day, when it becomes something else.

This is what happens when you elect a sociopathic toddler with ADHD.

Iran has supposedly been two weeks away from having enough enriched uranium to construct a nuke for the better part of four decades. It’s always what we hear.

But back to Trump, our delusional and witless leader, now permitted to make unilateral decisions like which country to invade without much blowback from the increasingly compliant media, much less any explanation to the American people.

So we’re clear: the Iran bombing occurred under the cover of darkness, on a weekend early morning, in flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.

But wait! As I write, yet another justification slips through: the claim that Iran planned to preemptively strike American forces and therefore forced our hand.

Gimme another 15 minutes — that will likely be refuted.

Let’s put it on the record that if Trump really wanted to destroy Iran, he’d declare himself its president and take over for a couple of months. Much more effective than bombs.

We must also remember that Trump was, per his 2024 campaign, the “Start No Wars President.” Then when that evaporated, he was the “No Extended Wars President.” Then early this week came the inevitable New York Times headline: “Trump Foresees Extended War on Iran as U.S. Adds to Forces.”

So much for that.

Uncertainty. Lies. Chaos. Corruption. The hallmarks of this administration in peacetime, now one in a war that will likely drag on long enough to both divert attention from Epstein (at least for a while) and toss the midterms into turmoil. Like everyone has predicted all along.

(And wait, oh yes, it’s now been another 10 minutes, and it seems there was no confirmation of the Pentagon having feared a preemptive strike. Never mind.)

And yet, there is more. It also emerged on Tuesday that one noncommissioned officer maintained he was directed to tell his troops Trump was “anointed by Jesus” and that war with Iran should be as “bloody” as possible to bring about Biblical end times — that the war was “all part of God’s divine plan” to bring about Armageddon.

This is what you get when your Pentagon chief is a rabid evangelical Christian/religious zealot/raging alcoholic. As if we didn’t already have enough to worry about without casting this as some holy war to justify merciless carnage.

On Sunday, the Save America Movement pointed out the following: “There has never been a military action in which the men leading it (overseen by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) have had less moral stature and integrity than this lot.

“Together, they are the unfittest of the unfit. A Camelot of buffoons, warmongers, and liars. They are a team of losers and felons, pedophile protecters, fascists, weirdos, religious nutters, and weapons-grade hypocrites who are playing a deadly game with young Americans’ lives.”

Add to this the fear that Iran is now highly motivated to lash out on our turf, leaving us concerned about terror attacks on land, sea, or air. On that score, the worst news is that a massive swath of our domestic security personnel is now more concerned with busting day laborers in Home Depot parking lots than defending the homeland.

Priorities, people.

I’d like to close with yet another possible incentive for when and why this war with Iran was launched: money.

It surfaced on Monday that the gambling website Polymarket found $529 million traded on bets predicting the day when the U.S. and Israel would attack Iran. It turned out Feb. 28 was correct. Six newly created accounts made more than $1 million on that prediction. Note: Donald Trump Jr. sits on the Polymarket advisory board.

Additionally, it’s instructive to note that the countries clamoring for government overthrow in Iran are the same ones that have enriched members of the extended Trump family, via direct gifts and shady deals.

When the man running the country openly operates a criminal enterprise out of the White House, it’s hardly out of the realm of possibility that he might launch a war to enrich himself and those around him. In fact, it would be completely on brand.

Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.

Trump just sent his MAGA promises to hell with a rash betrayal

Donald Trump is epically and furiously destroying … all of his 2024 campaign promises, causing MAGA to fume and the rest of the world to sweat.

The official name for his war with Iran, Operation Epic Fury, most aptly describes what is unquestionably Trump’s biggest, more ferocious, blood-boiling hypocrisy of all.

There is one through-line, from gas pumps to grocery aisles to the Epstein files to Epic Fury. The louder and more frequently Trump makes the promise, the more spectacular the inevitable betrayal.

This weekend, he jumped a shark.

Americans feel the disconnect in their proverbial pocketbooks. Trump promised lower prices and relief from inflation. Instead, inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s target. Tariffs, Trump’s favored word until “war” came along, add pressure to consumer costs.

Grocery bills haven’t retreated. Essentials are still pricey. And now, with a widening war in the Middle East, energy markets are rattled. Iranian retaliation targeting infrastructure, including Saudi Arabia's biggest oil refinery, threatens to send gas prices climbing.

“Drill, baby, drill” doesn’t mean much when global supply lines are on fire and geopolitical instability is priced in at the pump.

The same with health care. Trump promised better and cheaper. Expired Affordable Care Act subsidies and rising Medicare and Medicaid costs belie it. There is no relief in sight. No legislation, no executive orders, nothing to address a quickening national crisis.

Then there are the Epstein files. Trump pledged full disclosure. Appropriately, that was a sick joke. What has occurred has been steeped in non-disclosure. Trump’s Attorney General and the abhorrent FBI director openly shield their boss.

And all of this — the high prices, the health care strain, the botched Epstein releases — are now outshone by his biggest hypocrisy, his biggest lie of all. Trumpism was never about “America First” or “start no wars.” It was about Trump as dictator and imperialist.

He pressed “go” on Operation Epic Fury and unleashed death, destruction and chaos throughout the Middle East. This war, its reasons still unclear, will not end in a week, or two, or five. That’s not what happens when there are no clearly defined objectives.

It’s not what happens when you have a liar and a hypocrite leading the charge. Trump has suggested the operation will last a couple of weeks. History will remember that whopper.

The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is dead. So are many other Iranian leaders. That’s a good thing but the Trump administration insists it isn’t “regime change.” Strange, because it sure looks like a governmental decapitation.

Adding to the symbolism of lies and double-crossing — and the alarm — is Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense who after Trump represents the ultimate “F.U.” to MAGA.

Trump promised no wars. Instead, he and Hegseth started a “War Department,” with Hegseth as “Secretary of War” and soldiers recast as “warriors,” committed to a “warrior ethos.”

The candidate who campaigned as the antidote to endless Middle East conflict now presides, with the woefully inexperienced Hegseth, over a conflict that risks expanding beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations.

Two lying, untrustworthy warmongers, who think peace is for sissies.

We are told this won’t be Iraq. It will be. We are told it will be limited. It won’t be. Contained. Not anymore. Strategic. Never was.

Americans have heard this before. Under George W. Bush, in 2003, Iraq was supposed to be quick and surgical. Not a quagmire. Not prolonged. Not generational. Oh, and Trump says Iranians should take to the streets and take back their government. In Iraq, Dick Cheney said U.S. forces would be welcomed as liberators. No similarity there.

Hegseth’s “this isn’t Iraq” is an icing of lies on top of a cake of prevarication.

If the promise of “no wars” morphed into Operation Epic Fury, why should the promise of “not a long war” mean only a couple of weeks? When trust is repeatedly broken, it doesn’t magically regenerate into truth, especially when dishonestly flows from Trump and Hegseth.

Hegseth is the embodiment of this transformation. On Monday, standing at the podium of what used to be the decorous Defense Department, he declared: “If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere on Earth, we will hunt you down … and we will kill you.”

“Kill.” It was repugnant.

It was a word delivered not with staid solemnity but with insidious irreverence. Clearly, Hegseth thinks “kill” makes him sound like a UFC champion. It may play well with the bullies and bros.

But Hegseth’s hyper-hypocrisy continues. The same leadership that demands ironclad discipline from its “warriors” has skirted established security protocols, relying on insecure communications channels while lecturing the country about national security threats.

The pattern of pietism is entrenched and unmistakable. Lower prices became lingering inflation. Healthcare reform meant higher premiums. Transparency transformed into protection of the Epstein Class.

And “no wars” mutated into a renamed “War Department” and chaotic Middle East conflict.

Politicians break promises. All. The. Time. But Trump’s lies are worse, with profound implications for Americans and for the world.

You cannot campaign as the peace candidate — and yearn for a Nobel — then govern as a war president. You cannot decry “forever wars” while launching one.

MAGA voters must reconcile themselves to airstrikes, oil volatility, rising gas prices, and the possibility of a drawn-out conflict. They were told “America first.” Instead, they see America entangled abroad while costs rise at home.

Under Trump, America is never first. Trump is first, always. When peace made Trump look weak and like a loser — no Nobel — he became conqueror-in-chief. That’s a lie too.

John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her "Best 25 of 2025.”

This Trump goon's bizarre threat sounds like it came from a drunk guy on a barstool

On Friday, Trump barred an American AI developer, Anthropic, from doing further business with the federal government, and barred all contractors from doing business with Anthropic — an extreme punishment typically reserved for adversarial countries.

Anthropic’s crime? Refusal to let the Department of Defense use its AI system, Claude, for surveilling American citizens or in autonomous weaponry that removes humans from decisions to kill.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — the man who group texted attack plans to a reporter, wanted to punish an astronaut for stating the law, then shot party balloons with potent lasers despite FAA warnings that the lasers could blind pilots while they were in the sky with passengers — demanded that Anthropic let him use its AI system without contractual restrictions. When Anthropic said no, Trump blacklisted them.

It’s hard to say what’s more appalling — that the Trump administration is building tools for mass public surveillance like China’s, or that an undisciplined dry drunk like Hegseth has access to lethal toys.

Keeping up with China … in the worst way

Trump has said he wants to keep up with China through “global technological dominance” and the “widespread use of AI.” China’s authoritarian government uses one of the most advanced public surveillance systems in the world, collecting extensive facial recognition, biometric data, and personal profiles from private citizens against their wishes.

China captures these data from citizens’ faces, conversations, social media posts, phones and other devices while people stand at crosswalks, ride the bus, and go to the store, then feeds the data into an AI database used for oppression: for law enforcement, “monitoring social behavior,” and controlling access to services.

China’s system is similar to what Trump oligarch-supporting Peter Thiel’s Palantir is building, namely, a high-level data integration platform that will enable U.S. law enforcement, ICE, the IRS, DHS, DOJ, the military, and any other rogue agency Trump wants to weaponize to collect facial recognition, license plate readers, and other biometric data for mass surveillance.

Poor Pete, nobody believes him

There were clauses in Anthropic’s contract with the DOD that prevented Claude from being used for either mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weaponry. While Anthropic had integrated Claude into some classified military networks, that $200 million contract expressly prohibited using it for mass surveillance of Americans as well as autonomous weaponry, “killer robots” that can identify, select, and kill targets without a human in the decision-making loop.

These were the contractual restrictions Hegseth’s DOD demanded be removed. But Anthropic wasn’t having it.

Just before Trump blacklisted them, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei said the company could not, “in good conscience” agree to the Pentagon’s request. Amodei has expressed concern that Claude could be used for mass surveillance by automatically assembling “scattered, individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of any person's life,” which seems to be exactly what Trump is trying to do.

In a series of angry social media posts, Undersecretary of Defense Emil Michael accused Anthropic of “lying” about using Claude for mass surveillance because the Dept. of Defense “doesn’t do mass surveillance as that is already illegal.”

Apparently the DOD does do comedy, because the suggestion that this regime will follow the law is a joke.

Forget about the hundreds of court orders Trump has already violated. How many people have been murdered off the coast of Venezuela with zero legal justification? Claiming without evidence that we’re in an "armed conflict" with "narco-terrorists" is not a legal justification; it’s a dictator’s “shoot now, ask questions never” strategy for breaking the law.

What can the AI do?

Most Americans are blissfully unaware of how the emerging AI landscape could change their lives, and not for the better. Since I’m no AI expert, I asked Google AI to explain in simple terms how Anthropic’s Claude, if left to Hegseth’s command, could be used to spy on Americans. Here’s how AI described Claude’s functional capacity, verbatim:

Mass Data Synthesis (Sorting Huge Amounts of Info): Imagine a super-fast robot reading billions of text messages, emails, and internet posts all at once. It looks for "moods" (like who is angry or unhappy) and makes a map of where those people live.
Intelligence Dossiers (Digital Secret Files): Using smart computer programs to read thousands of pages of documents about one person instantly. It acts like a digital detective, putting together a secret file on someone's whole life.
Automated Tracking (Digital Footprints): Looking at where people drive, what websites they visit, and who they talk to. This combines records to draw a map of where someone goes, like cameras on streets tracking cars.
Law Enforcement Support (Police Tech Tools): Companies like Palantir create software for the police. This software combines information from cameras, bank records, and phone calls to track suspects and help police find them quickly.

The dispute has put Silicon valley on edge. If Trump and Hegseth can change the terms of AI contracts after the fact, why sign contracts at all?

The regime’s dishonesty isn’t helping. Before Trump blacklisted Anthropic, Pentagon officials said they had “no interest” in using the illegal surveillance tools outlined above, while seeking unfettered access to them. Color me, and anyone with half a brain, skeptical.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

We have invented a threat so lethal this Trump stooge should not be allowed near it

Which is more important to you? Allowing Pete Hegseth to use artificial intelligence (AI) however he wants, OR preventing AI from doing mass surveillance of Americans and creating lethal weapons without human oversight?

That’s the stark choice posed by the intensifying fight between an AI corporation called Anthropic and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Secretary of “War.”

AI is dangerous as hell. I view it as one of the four existential crises America now faces — along with climate change, widening inequality, and the destruction of our democracy.

To be sure, AI is capable of changing human life for the better. But if unregulated, it could be a destructive nightmare — giving government the power to know everything about us and suppress all dissent, distorting news and media to the point where no one can distinguish between lies and truth, and threatening human beings with bots that could decide we’re unnecessary obstacles to their taking over the earth.

Now is the time we should be putting guardrails in place. But two forces are making this difficult if not impossible.

The first is corporate greed, which is why OpenAI, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Google have jettisoned all precautions. Several AI researchers have left AI companies in recent weeks, warning that safety and other considerations are being pushed aside as their corporations raise billions of dollars and in preparation for initial public offerings that will make their executives hugely wealthy.

The second is the Trump regime, which doesn’t wants any restrictions on AI — including state government’s. That’s largely because the AI industry has become a powerful force in Washington, throwing money at politicians who’ll do its bidding (including Trump) and against politicians who want guardrails. And because so many Trump officials are corrupt, with their own financial stakes in AI.

Anthropic has been one of the most safety-conscious of all AI companies. It was founded as an AI safety research lab in 2021 after its CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders left OpenAI, concerned that OpenAI’s ChatGPT wasn’t focused enough on safety.

Amodei has argued that A.I. needs strict guardrails to prevent it from potentially wrecking the world. In 2022, he chose not to release an earlier version of Anthropic’s AI software Claude, fearing it would start a dangerous technology race. In a podcast interview in 2023, he said there was a 10 to 25 percent chance that A.I. could destroy humanity.

In January, Amodei argued in an essay that “using A.I. for domestic mass surveillance and mass propaganda” was “entirely illegitimate,” and that A.I.-automated lethal weapons could greatly increase the risks “of democratic governments turning them against their own people to seize power.” Internally, the company has strict guidelines barring its technology from being used to facilitate violence.

Over the past year Anthropic has battled the Trump regime by pushing for state and federal AI guardrails.

In recent weeks, Hegseth and Amodei have been fighting over the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s AI, called Claude. Amodei has stuck to his demands: no surveillance of Americans, and no lethal autonomous weapons lacking human control.

The fight started when Palantir helped the Pentagon capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Palantir is a Pentagon contractor that uses Anthropic’s Claude. (Palantir, co-founded by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel and now headed by Alex Karp, is my candidate for the worst corporation in America because it allows governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies to quickly process and analyze massive amounts of your personal data.)

When top executives at Anthropic asked executives at Palantir if Claude had been used in the Maduro operation, the Palantir execs became alarmed that Anthropic might not be a reliable partner in future Pentagon operations. They contacted the Pentagon and Hegseth.

Last Tuesday, Hegseth issued Anthropic an ultimatum: It must allow the Pentagon to use its AI for any purpose or the Trump regime will invoke the Defense Production Act — forcing Anthropic to let the Pentagon to use Claude while also putting all Anthropic’s government contracts at risk.

The Pentagon already has agreements with Musk’s xAI to use its AI Grok, and is closing in on an agreement with Google to use its own AI model, Gemini. But Anthropic’s Claude is considered a superior product, producing more accurate information.

What’s at stake here? Everything.

Pentagon officials have said that they have the right to use AI however they wish, as long as they use it lawfully.

But because AI has so much political power, Congress and the Trump regime won’t enact laws to prevent it from doing horrendous things. That in effect leaves the responsibility to private AI companies such as Anthropic. Anthropic says it wants to support the government but must ensure that its AI is used in line with what it can “responsibly do.”

Hegseth and the Trump regime have given Anthropic until this Friday at 5 pm to consent to letting the Pentagon use its AI however it wishes or it will simply take it.

Friends, this isn’t just a dispute between two people — Hegseth and Amodei. Nor is it a fight between the Pentagon and a single corporation. The issue goes way beyond this particular controversy. I don’t want to be overly alarmist about it, but the outcome could affect the future of humanity.

What can you do? Call your senators and representatives now, today, and tell them you don’t want the Defense Department to take Anthropic’s AI technology, and you do want them to enact strict controls on the future uses of AI.

Visit www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member and type your address into the search box. A list of your representatives and their contact information will appear. Or you can call the Capitol switchboard directly at 202-224-3121 to be connected to your members’ office.

As I’ve said before, congressional staffers log every single call that comes into their office in a database that informs the member of the issues their constituents are engaged with, and they use this data to inform their decisions. Staffers answering the phones are trained to talk with constituents, and they do it all day. They won’t be debating you about your position, and are likely to be primarily listening and taking notes.

Please. Today.

Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org