Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went after the press hard Thursday during a Pentagon briefing on the war with Iran, insisting reporters were doing more than simply covering events. In his view, the coverage had become a political act—one he compared to people in the Bible who tried to undermine Jesus.
He didn’t just say the reporting was inaccurate or incomplete. Hegseth accused reporters of publishing “an endless stream of garbage,” adding that it was “relentlessly negative” and “incredibly unpatriotic.” The remarks landed in a charged moment, when the briefing itself was still unfolding and the usual quiet of the briefing room—paper shifting, voices low—felt suddenly a bit louder.
“I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling,” Hegseth said, according to his comments during the briefing. “Despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops.” He then told reporters, essentially, that it was hard to tell which side they were on. “It’s incredibly unpatriotic,” he said, a line that sounded less like an argument about facts and more like a judgment about motives.
Hegseth later shifted into a biblical analogy that went even further. He likened reporters to the Pharisees who scrutinized Jesus—claiming their behavior mirrored what he believes is happening in modern coverage. “Even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter,” he said of the Pharisees. “They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda.”
Then he made the comparison more personal, bringing in President Donald Trump and the idea that political bias is blinding people to military success. “I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees. Not all of you, but the legacy, Trump-hating press,” he said. “Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors.”
Hegseth also tied the remarks to recent actions by Trump, including the president posting an image of himself on social media that depicted him as Jesus Christ, and Trump launching an attack against the pope for not supporting his war efforts. Before returning to his own framing of the war’s progress, Hegseth said, “I would ask you to open your eyes to the goodness, the historic success of our troops. The courage of this president and this historic moment for a deal that could end the Iranian nuclear threat,” adding that successes during the war could be likened to “miracles.”
Minutes after the briefing, Pope Leo XIV responded in a statement on X that directly warned against using faith for political leverage. “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,” his post read. It was a sharp counterpoint, and the timing made it feel pointed rather than distant.
Whether the exchange ultimately clarifies anything for the public is another question. But on Thursday, in the middle of a national security briefing, religious imagery and press criticism collided in a way that’s hard to unsee—and maybe harder to walk back.
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