Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday doubled down on the Trump administration’s use of religious imagery, using a biblical analogy to attack U.S. press coverage of the Iran war. It follows controversy over an image President Donald Trump posted and later deleted depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
Speaking at a Pentagon briefing, Hegseth compared members of the press to Pharisees described in the Gospel of Mark, accusing journalists of downplaying U.S. military achievements against Iran.“Even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter,” he said, recounting a recent church sermon he attended. “They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda.”
Despite U.S. and Israeli battlefield successes in their war against Iran, the Trump administration hasn’t achieved its stated aim of regime change, there’s been vast international economic damage, the war is polling poorly, and U.S.-Iran peace talks remain stuck on the question of Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
Hegseth, in his remarks, cast some of the coverage as “incredibly unpatriotic,” without being specific, telling reporters in the room, “It’s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on.”
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“Our press are just like these Pharisees,” he said. “Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors.”
The remarks come after Trump faced criticism from religious leaders and members of his own party after he posted — and later deleted — imagery portraying himself as Christ-like. Trump later said he thought the image showed him “as a doctor.”
Hegseth did not mention that episode but leaned heavily into similar religious framing, suggesting the media’s scrutiny of Trump mirrors biblical figures who, by his telling, sought to undermine Jesus Christ.
It’s just the latest episode in Hegseth’s adversarial relationship with reporters, whose work in the Pentagon he’s gone to great lengths to hamper.
A federal judge just dealt those efforts a setback last week when he ruled that the Defense Department is violating an earlier order to restore access for reporters. The judge, siding with The New York Times, had earlier said the Pentagon’s new credential policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process.
The U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, an Islamic theocracy, has created a deeper subtext for the Trump administration’s repeated mentions of prayer and biblical themes in their messaging. Hegseth has a track record of bringing conservative evangelism into the Pentagon, and his Christian rhetoric has drawn repeated scrutiny.
Pope Leo XIV and Trump have traded public criticism over the last week. Trump called out the pope last week in a post defending his war with Iran, and on Thursday morning, the pontiff decried “tyrants” in public remarks.
“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” the pope said during his four-country tour of Africa. “It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience.”
This month Hegseth compared a rescued U.S. pilot downed in Iran on Good Friday and rescued on Easter to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as portrayed in the New Testament.
“You see, shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice — all of Saturday and rescued on Sunday,” he said at an earlier press briefing. “Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday, a pilot reborn. All home and accounted for. A nation rejoicing. God is good.”
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