Donald Trump outright called his Pentagon chief the “Secretary of War” Friday while also seemingly believing Pete Hegseth actually appeared on Fox News to talk “about modern weapons and warfare” after the network aired a clip of the defense secretary’s announcement on the administration’s new drone strategy.
“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was great on FoxNews this morning. Talking about modern weapons and warfare,” the president exclaimed on Truth Social. “Thank you also to Brett Velicovich, who really knows his ‘stuff.’ We are really on our way. MAGA!”
The president fully leaning into this description for Hegseth comes weeks after he first began floating the idea of having the Secretary of Defense label revert back to the original name of “Secretary of War,” which is what the position was known as from its inception in 1789 until 1947. The change took place after the National Security Act established the Department of Defense and reorganized the military.
“I have, as you know, Marco Rubio with me and Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State and Secretary of War, should we say,” Trump said last month during the NATO summit, adding: “You know it used to be called Secretary of War?”
After wondering if they could perhaps, for a “couple of weeks,” call Hegseth that “because we feel like warriors,” the president went on a tangent about how “it became politically correct” to refer to the position as Secretary of Defense. This was also amid the increased hostilities with Iran, which resulted in an American airstrike on three underground nuclear facilities.
“I don’t know, maybe we’ll have to start thinking about changing it, but we feel that way,” Trump exclaimed as Hegseth nodded in approval behind him.
Besides once again pushing the “War” title for Hegseth, the president appeared to believe on Friday that the former Fox News morning host went back to his old haunt to wax poetic about the Pentagon’s push to fast-track drone production, which Hegseth first announced in a widely mocked promotional video on social media.
With Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” playing in the background, the clip showed a quadcopter flying over to Hegseth to deliver the memo to Hegseth, who plucked it from the hovering drone and signed it.
“This is the future,” he bellowed. “We’re in the fight. We’re in the fight to win it. And we’re never gonna back down.”
While the president thought that Hegseth did “great” on Fox News “talking about modern weapons and warfare” Friday morning, the reality is that the network only aired portions of the announcement video throughout the early part of the day. The defense secretary himself did not make an on-air Fox News appearance Friday to discuss the new drone procurement program.
While the president’s favorite morning program Fox & Friends repeatedly discussed the Pentagon’s new drone-buying practices and featured the Hegseth clip, it seems most likely that it was a segment on America’s Newsroom that spurred Trump’s Truth post.
Once again airing the Hegseth video, the anchors of the news program – which immediately follows Fox & Friends – then brought on Fox News contributor and Army veteran Brett Velicovich to praise their former colleague’s new drone proposals.
“This is exactly why Secretary Hegseth was the right choice for the job,” Velicohoch declared about the defense secretary’s announcement. “He’s the disrupter needed in our archaic military industrial base that has slowly been failing us by not adapting quick enough to meet the needs of modern warfare. And finally, someone at the top is listening to what is needed.”
Moments after Velicovich wrapped up his interview with co-anchor Bill Hemmer, the president blasted out his social media praise for the Fox News performances of both Hegseth and Velicovich, who he proclaimed knows his “stuff.”
Meanwhile, the 79-year-old president’s belief that one of his senior Cabinet officials did “great” during a non-existent Fox News interview prompted immediate mockery from liberals and progressives.
“Had Joe Biden tweeted ‘Pete Buttigieg killed it on MSNBC this morning’ and Buttigieg wasn't even on, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson would've written a book about it,” Public Notice publisher and renowned cable news clipper Aaron Rupar noted. “Normal stuff from Trump though.”
