Veteran Blasts Pete Hegseth Over Pride Month 'Troll' Job And 'Warrior Ethos'
'Embarrassing': Veteran blasts Hegseth ordering Navy to rename USNS Harvey Milk
Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) on Wednesday dragged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “pretty immature” order for the U.S. Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a vessel named after a late LGBTQ+ rights icon.
Kander — a U.S. Army veteran — spoke to MSNBC about Hegseth’s ’80s “action movie”-like talk of “trying to restore a warrior culture” in the military, arguing that his move to rename the ship sends the wrong message to gay service members who will believe they can’t be part of such an “ethos.”
“That’s a real problem in a military that rightfully got rid of the law that forced Harvey Milk out of the military,” said Kander of Milk, who served in the Navy in the Korean War before being forcibly discharged due to his sexual orientation.
In 1978, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. He was assassinated later that year.
The timing of the move to rename the ship — which is set to be announced next week in the heart of Pride Month — was reportedly intentional and reflects wider efforts to reimagine history under President Donald Trump.
Hegseth’s plan to strip the vessel of Milk’s name has sparked outrage among leaders in San Francisco and led to criticism from actor Sean Penn, who played Milk in the 2008 Oscar-winning movie named after the politician.
Kander stressed that it’s not a “bad thing” to remind service members about “what they’re serving for.”
“And you want to talk about a ‘warrior ethos,’ I mean, how about somebody who joins the military during a war as an officer, gets kicked out over their own objections and then goes on to fight for civil rights and gives their life for the cause,” he said of Milk.
“That’s probably the kind of thing that we want to remind our service members that America is about and what we’re fighting for in the first place.”
Moments earlier, Kander said the move by Hegseth — who once walked back controversial comments attacking gay service members — reflects what happens when you put a Fox News host in charge of the Pentagon, as “everything looks like a tweet.”
“This is like a tweet to troll gay people during Pride Month,” Kander said.
Pete Hegseth Has Makeup Studio Installed at Pentagon
The former Fox News host spent thousands of dollars in renovations as the administration says it’s cutting costs.
Once a television host, always a television host.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent thousands of dollars to turn a Pentagon room into a makeup studio earlier this year, according to CBS News.
He made the seemingly costly renovation to the green room immediately next to the Pentagon press briefing room while enacting deep cuts to department programs and staff, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to root out wasteful spending.
The Pentagon defended Hegseth’s decision to install the makeup studio Tuesday, calling the renovation “routine.”
“Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration,” a Defense Department spokesperson told CBS News.
One source said that the room was originally sparsely furnished with a table, chairs, a mirror on the back of the door, a TV, and photos of former defense secretaries on the wall.
An in-house construction crew then came in and removed everything, replacing the previous furniture with a new director’s chair and a large mirror with makeup lights, another source said.
The improvements, which reportedly cost thousands of dollars, came at a time when the administration was looking to cut costs, resulting in thousands of federal workers losing their jobs and major budget cuts across many programs and departments.
Hegseth himself has played an important role in these cuts, signing a memo in March titled “Continuing Elimination of Wasteful Spending at the Department of Defense,” which terminated over $580 million in “wasteful spending” on the department’s contracts and grants.
In a video posted to X, he said how these contracts and grants were “not a good use of taxpayer dollars.”
“Ultimately that’s who funds us, and we owe you transparency and making sure we’re using it well,” he added.
The Defense Department’s spokesperson told CBS News that they ensured the renovations would not be too costly.
“For this upgrade we were deliberately conservative and opted for several less expensive, on-hand material solutions,” they said.
According to them, the new items came from existing inventories and the new countertop was built by facilities services staff.
The upgraded green room will only be available to senior leaders and VIPs to use before press calls or TV appearances.
Former Fox News and CBS News producer Tami Radabaugh, who is currently the deputy assistant to the secretary for strategic engagement, was the one to suggest these renovations.
According to a source, she got the go-ahead from Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, and the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell.
Hegseth has been under scrutiny ever since “Signalgate” in March, and faces yet another data security scandal after it was revealed that he shared sensitive information about upcoming military strikes in Yemen in another group chat with his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, among others.
He also ousted three handpicked top aides from his department and reassigned his chief of staff, Joe Kasper, last week.
Access to the Pentagon’s press briefing room has been restricted since February, with reporters losing one of the few spots where they could connect to Wi-Fi and film on-camera reports or file their stories. Now, no one is able to enter until an official is speaking inside.
