Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth escalated his war with the media Thursday, reaching into Scripture to attack coverage of the Iran conflict and questioning journalists' loyalty to the country.
At a Pentagon briefing, Hegseth called the American press "incredibly unpatriotic" and denounced "the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling." He then pivoted to religious language, comparing critical reporters to the Pharisees, the biblical Jewish group that opposed Jesus.
"Our press are just like these Pharisees," Hegseth said, citing a sermon he heard at church on Sunday about Jesus healing a man before what he called "the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time." He added that the "legacy Trump-hating press" are so blinded by political bias that they cannot see "the brilliance of our American warriors."
"The Pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation, only looking for the negative," he said. "The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn."
The attack marks a notable escalation in Hegseth's rhetoric toward the media since fighting began in late February. While he has regularly deployed religious references at Pentagon news conferences, Thursday's comparison carried explicit religious undertones that departed sharply from language used by previous defense secretaries.
Hegseth, a Christian, spent years as a Fox News host before Trump appointed him to lead the Pentagon. His use of faith-based messaging in official statements represents a notable shift in how senior defense officials have historically communicated with the press.
Columbia University journalism professor Bill Grueskin pushed back against Hegseth's framing, arguing it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the press's role in democracy. "It's no surprise that a Fox News host who has done so little actual reporting in his career would fail to understand how journalists do their jobs," Grueskin said.
Grueskin, a former senior editor at the Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News, noted that Hegseth revealed his true grievance when he said, "Sometimes it's hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on."
"Ideally, reporters are on the side of the truth and see their role as providing the most accurate, complete and transparent account of what's happening on the ground," Grueskin said. He also pointed out that Hegseth has restricted press access at the Pentagon while American journalists face nearly insurmountable obstacles working inside Iran.
Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor, also weighed in on social media, criticizing Hegseth's invocation of faith. "As a Christian how dare you use religion to shame those who simply ask questions," she wrote on X.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Comparing the press to biblical villains while restricting their access to the Pentagon is a page from a playbook designed to delegitimize scrutiny, not answer it."
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