Trump’s Secretary of War on the Press, Pete Hegseth, Is Rebuked By the Media He’s Trying to Censor

The most anti-free press regime in American history, led by Donald “The Media is the Enemy of the People” Trump, is once again proving how out of touch it is with the principles of the Constitution and its First Amendment prohibition against “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

When Donald Trump made Pete Hegseth his Secretary of “War,” he was installing a flunky who he knew would obey his every command, no matter how averse to the law or morality. And Hegseth proved his fealty to Trump last month when he issued a decree demanding that the press must swear a Trumpian loyalty oath before being allowed access to the Pentagon or to military leaders who work for the American people. It was such a repugnant proposal that even Trump was against it when he first heard about it.

SEE THIS: Trump Smacks Down His Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Over His Loyalty Pledge on the Free Press

Of course, Trump, in his perpetual state of ignorance and/or dementia, likely had no idea what the new rules imposed by Hegseth meant. But they were consistent with his twisted mindset, believing that he can dictate what the media reports about him. The mandate that Hegseth imposed on the press forbids them to do any investigative reporting, interviewing, or to publish any stories that haven’t been pre-approved by Hegseth’s Pentagon overlords.

Under this decree, reporters would be required to have an approved Pentagon escort when in the building. And should they refuse to sign the oath, they risk losing their press credentials. Hegseth claimed that the new rules boiled down to three tenets:

  • The press no longer roams free. Hegseth’s explicit dismissal of the free press.
  • The press must wear visible badges. Unlike Trump’s badgeless, masked ICE thugs.
  • Credentialed press is no longer permitted to solicit criminal acts. Which they have never been permitted to do.

When a government agency threatens to revoke the credentials of news organizations that don’t obey their edicts, you don’t have a free press. You have a fascist dictatorship that obviously has some very troubling things to hide. Consequently, Hegseth’s decree was roundly rejected. Several major news outlets condemned the new rules and refused to sign. They include ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, The Atlantic, and NPR.

Even the ultra-MAGA outlets Newsmax and the Washington Times declined to sign. The shamelessly Trump-fluffing One America News Network (OAN) is the only outlet that, so far, has agreed to go along with Hegseth’s Hegemony. And surprisingly, Fox News, Hegseth’s previous employer, was one of those that would not sign on. That’s gotta sting. In a joint statement, the resisting media said that…

“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues.

“The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”

It will be interesting to see if Hegseth and the Pentagon stick to this censorious initiative. Or if Trump bothers to weigh in. In the meantime, they have affirmed just how much they despise the free press. And considering everything they have to hide – including Trump’s lawlessness, his administration’s massively unpopular agenda, and of course, the infamous Jeffrey Epstein files – it’s no wonder they hate even the thought of a free press.

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Trump Smacks Down His Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Over His Loyalty Pledge on the Free Press

The continuing crusade by the regime of Donald Trump to undermine the Constitution’s First Amendment is hitting new lows as he presides over previously unimaginable assaults on free speech and freedom of the press. He is playing by the rules laid out by history’s most notorious totalitarians that he admires and seeks to emulate.

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

This week Trump’s Secretary of Defense (War?), Pete Hegseth, decreed that the press must comply with a sort of loyalty oath before they will be permitted any access to the Pentagon or the military leaders who work for the American people. It’s just what you might expect from a dry drunk whose qualifications for the job consist of having co-hosted a weekend morning program on Fox News. And it affirms the twisted mindset of Trump, who believes that he can dictate what the media reports about him.

SEE THIS: Trump’s 97% Solution is Further Evidence of His Declining Mental Acuity and Pathological Lying

The mandate that Hegseth imposed on the press forbids them to do any investigative reporting, interviewing, or to publish any stories that haven’t been pre-approved by Hegseth’s Pentagon overlords. As reported by NPR, the network that Trump and the GOP have defunded…

“The Pentagon will drastically change its rules for journalists who cover the Department of Defense, two U.S. officials who are not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to NPR Friday. The move drew sharp criticism from news organizations, who said it violated the bedrock of a free press.”

“Going forward, journalists must sign a pledge not to gather any information, including unclassified reports, that hasn’t been authorized for release. […] those who fail to obey the new policy will lose their press credentials.”

When a government agency threatens to revoke the credentials of news organizations that don’t obey their edicts, you don’t have a free press. You have a fascist dictatorship that obviously has some very troubling things to hide. Could it be that Trump and Hegseth are worried that the people will find out that the boats they are blowing up in the Caribbean were just innocent fishermen? Or are they concerned that more details of Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein will be revealed?

The NPR story quoted Hegseth saying that “DoW information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” This, from the guy who disclosed secret war plans in an insecure Signal chat group. He also said that “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do.” That’s right! And the press are the people’s representatives. The people rely on the press, not partisan political hacks like Hegseth and his designated cronies, to keep them informed.

Reporting only what those in power have approved is not journalism. It’s stenography. Or as George Orwell put it: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” This has been a long time coming with the Trump regime. In February he issued his own decree aimed at manipulating the reporting about him…

SEE THIS: Trump Kicks Reporters Out of Pentagon Offices, Replaces Them with MAGA Media Mouthpieces

However, in a surprise announcement, Trump is now publicly distancing himself from Hegseth’s pressuring of the press. He was asked directly “Should the Pentagon be part of deciding what reporters can report on?” He replied “No, I don’t think so. Nothing stops reporters. You know that.”

It’s likely that Trump has no idea what Hegseth said, or what this reporter’s question meant. It isn’t as if he has a firm grasp of his administration – or reality. Everything he says is fungible and reversible if it suits his needs. In the meantime, Trump didn’t revoke Hegseth’s policy, so the muzzling of the press stands. Except that “Nothing stops reporters. You know that.” Well, we’ll see.

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Trump’s Pentagon Flack Brags About Female Military Recruitment with Obviously Fake AI Images

The flamingly dishonest propaganda that is emblematic of the Donald Trump regime has taken another turn for the worse. Just when you think they have hit rock bottom, they manage to find a trap door down there that leads to shaft dropping another mile or so.

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Donald Trump, Military Parade

The latest sinkhole being explored by the Trumpies is their celebration of what they claim to be a profound success in military recruitment of women. This is the same military that is headed up by Defense Secretary (and former Fox News host), Pete Hegseth, who has decreed that all diversity initiatives that promoted women in the services be terminated. But he spares no expense on making himself pretty for the TV cameras.

SEE THIS: Pete Hegseth Spends Thousands for a Pentagon Makeup Studio to Fortify America’s Military Might

This week the ultra-MAGA Trump-fluffing network, One America News (OAN), did an interview with Defense Department spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson. Host Matt Gaetz (former congressman and failed Attorney General nominee) conducted the interview in which they were both gushing over the alleged increase in female recruits. During the segment there was video playing of a variety of proud women soldiers in uniform. There was just one problem.

A quick glance at the images showed that they were all AI fakes. The images were generated using Elon Musk’s version of AI called Grok. And they even still had the logo in the bottom corners. Neither Gaetz nor Wilson disclosed the source of the videos or their bogus beginnings. They were too proud to let reality get in the way…

Gaetz: Tell us what the numbers are saying about the recruitment of women in our military.
Wilson: The numbers are absolutely fantastic across the board…Under the previous administration we had about 16,000 female recruits last year. Now we’ve got upwards of 24,000. This is a nearly 7,000 person increase in female recruits alone. And again, it’s not just women. It’s men too. The Army, the Air Force, the Navy, everyone is hitting their metrics early And it is a testament to Secretary Hegseth and president Trump’s leadership.

It turns out that young Americans want to sign up to be warfighters. They don’t want this ideology that the previous administration tried to hoist on them. They want to get back to basics. And that’s what we’re doing at DoD. And the numbers are just proof in the pudding.

If the spokesperson for the Pentagon will sit by while fake images are presented to support her reported numbers of female recruits, how are we supposed to trust the numbers themselves? They offered nothing to document the claim. And even if the numbers are accurate, they presented zero evidence that recruitment increased because of Trump, or Hegseth, or any increasing desire to become warfighters by American men or women.

Quite often recruitment goes up if economic opportunities in civilian life decline. And Trump’s economy and job creation has been on a steady down slope. They also failed to mention that the rise in recruitment is a trend that began during President Biden’s administration. What’s more, after Trump and Hegseth took over, they lowered the standards for education and physical health.

The profile on the Department of Defense Rapid Response X/Twitter account says “Welcome To The Official Rapid Response Account For The DOD! Supporting The Mission Of @SecDef And Fighting Against Fake News!” Hopefully their ability to fight actual wars is not reflected in their ability to fight fake news. If it is, we are in big trouble. They can’t even put on a decent parade.

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Pentagon IG: Pete Hegseth Disclosed Classified Info During His Signal Chat – Fox News Buries It

The fate of the Defense Secretary that Donald Trump plucked from Fox News is becoming more untenable with every day that he is tainting that noble office. Pete Hegseth was never qualified to run a toy soldier parade, much less the largest bureaucracy in the United States government. And particularly one that bears such consequential burdens for national security.

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

Shortly after Hegseth was confirmed by a Republican Senate that is blindly compliant to Dear Leader Trump, Hegseth was caught engaging in a dialog with his defense and intelligence comrades using the Signal app, a commercial chat program that was not capable of maintaining secure communications. The chat included the Vice-President, JD Vance, the Director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, the National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, and others. During that meeting Hegseth revealed the specific plans for a military attack on Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

SEE THIS: SIGNALGATE: How Fox News Fouled Up the War Planning Chat Scandal Was More Cover-Up than Coverage

Hegseth vehemently denied that any classified information was disclosed during the chat. And Trump dismissed the whole affair by pretending that he was blissfully ignorant (which is believable) saying that, “I know nothing about it. […] You’re telling me about it for the first time.”

However, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hegseth, Trump, and everyone else involved have been lying. It is now being reported that the Pentagon Inspector General confirmed that the plans Hegseth blabbed came from a classified email that was, in fact, labeled “SECRET!” This alarming breach of security was even reported by Fox News…

“Multiple officials tell Fox News the Pentagon’s inspector general has received evidence that the U.S. military strike plans shared by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over Signal derived from a classified email labeled ‘SECRET/NOFORN,’ which stands for no foreign nationals should see it. That was first reported by The Washington Post. Fox is also told the inspector general received the classified email with markings early in its investigation, which began in April.

“Secretary Hegseth’s team is responding. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says in a statement to Fox, in part, ‘The Department stands behind its previous statements: no classified information was shared via Signal.'”

Fox News has **confirmed** reports from other outlets that the Pentagon’s watchdog has learned information in his Signal texts came from a classified email.This 40-second headline read is the entirety of the network's coverage of the story.

Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) 2025-07-25T15:39:05.223Z

So this dangerous misconduct by Hegseth was confirmed by the Inspector General of the Defense Department that he supposedly runs. And this revelation also confirms that Hegseth and his cohorts lied about it when originally asked to respond. All of that would be sufficient result in his resignation or termination under normal circumstances. Needless to say, normality is not something that is associated with the Trump administration.

What’s more, while it is notable that Fox News actually reported this scandal, no one should give them any credit for it. Because the brief mention above is the only one to date that Fox News has aired. Even though Trump’s Cabinet members, including Hegseth, are on Fox News more often than ads for Ozempic, none of them been asked to comment on this.

There are a lot of stories in this news cycle about Trump, including those about his relationship with child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein; his “Big Ugly Billionaire’s Budget Act” (BUBBA), that will throw millions of Americans off of their health insurance plans, fund ICE as the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, and explode the National debt; his recessionary, tariff-drive economic agenda; and his weaponization of the Justice Department that has accused President Obama of treason.

MORE HERE: Trump’s DNI and Fox News Manufacture a New Crackpot Conspiracy Theory Accusing Obama of Treason

But no story exposes the potential for greater harm than the betrayal of America’s military and intelligence operations around the world. And if Hegseth (and Vance, Gabbard, Ratcliff, and Waltz) survives this ghastly behavior, than there is literally nothing that can be excluded from the atrocities that Trump might engage in.

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Pete Hegseth Spends Thousands for a Pentagon Makeup Studio to Fortify America’s Military Might

One of the most prominent parts of Donald Trump’s election campaign was his promise to restore what he said was a depleted American Defense Department and to strengthen what in his opinion were weak and ineffectual troops.

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Fox News, Pete Hegseth, Cleared

Trump’s callous and ignorant insult to the soldiers who put their lives on the line every day was nothing new for him. It was just more of his derogatory rhetoric that cast fallen fighters as “suckers and losers,” from a five-time draft dodger who installed the most dangerously unqualified, and universally reviled, flunky to run the Pentagon in U.S. history.

SEE THIS: WHUT? Trump’s Press Secretary Reveals that ‘the Entire Pentagon is Working Against’ Pete Hegseth

Hegseth has made a lot of noise about returning command of the U.S. military to the warfighters. By which he seems to have meant eliminating anyone who didn’t fit his, and Trump’s, perverse idea of a soldier. Therefore, they had to banish women and LGBTQ troops. And they had to terminate programs that advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a goal for ending discriminatory promotions.

However, this vision of a stronger, whiter, more masculine fighting force may not be the only thing on Hegseth’s mind to improve the American military. Because it has just been reported that he has spent thousands of dollars to build a makeup studio in the Pentagon. Apparently, our soldiers also have to look good in battlefield photos. Or more likely, when Hegseth and other officers are making appearances on Fox News. CBS News reports that

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently ordered modifications to a room next to the Pentagon press briefing room to retrofit it with a makeup studio that can be used to prepare for television appearances, multiple sources told CBS News.

“The price tag for the project was several thousand dollars, according to two of the sources, at a time when the administration is searching for cost-cutting measures.”

The CBS story also noted that a Deputy Assistant to the Secretary for Strategic Engagement (whatever that is), and Hegseth’s wife expressed their approval of the studio. Both just happen to be former Fox News producers. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone since Hegseth himself is former Fox News weekend host. Which is where Trump found him, just like at least twenty other people that Trump recruited for his White House staff…

MORE HERE: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Despite Hegseth’s insistence that the only thing he’s interested in is improving the warfighting abilities of the armed forces and military readiness, his emphasis on more shallow objectives, such as appearance, is noticeably uppermost among his priorities. He said as much Wednesday when he said this about troops to students at the U.S. Army War College…

“They need to be fit, not fat. Sharp, not shabby. Especially our leaders. That’s why we’re reviewing how the department has maintained standards in the past, such as the last four years, and whether those standards have dropped.”

MUST WATCH: Pete Hegseth really thinks a fat officer is more dangerous than traitors leaking war plans or extremists infiltrating the ranks. Not sabotage. Not sedition. Just body fat. This isn’t about standards—it’s about being a performative, fascist little bitch on TV.

Kye (@gxldsociety.bsky.social) 2025-04-23T19:50:12.630Z

You have to wonder who Hegseth was thinking about when he said “Especially our leaders.” Has he ever actually seen Donald Trump? Furthermore, his reference to the standards of the past administration is one of the mandatory offhand insults of President Biden that all Trump subordinates are required to make in every public address.

It’s clear that Hegseth has other things on his mind than military readiness. That was also evident when he disclosed sensitive attack plans in two separate Signal chats that included people without security clearances, such as a journalist, and his wife. But did anyone expect anything more of a former TV talking head with zero experience in managing anything bigger than a lemonade stand?

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WHUT? Trump’s Press Secretary Reveals that ‘the Entire Pentagon is Working Against’ Pete Hegseth

Who could have imagined a few months ago, that when Donald Trump nominated Pete Hegseth, a weekend Fox News host with no experience whatsoever running a sprawling, bureaucratic institution, to head up the Pentagon, that it would result in being one of the worst fiascos in government administration history?

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

The obvious answer to the question above is: EVERYONE! Or at least everyone who had not been indoctrinated into the Cult of Trump. And it didn’t really require much imagination. The predictions of certain calamity and chaos were ubiquitous among military and management professionals. In fact the notion that an incompetent, alcoholic, TV talking head like Hegseth could succeed was preposterous from the start. Even a devoted Trump-fluffer on Newsmax thought so.

SEE THIS: Has Hell Frozen Over? Newsmax Host Shoots Down Trump’s Defense Secretary Nominee, Pete Hegseth

It didn’t take long for the predictions about Hegseth to come true. Last month it was revealed that he participated in a Signal chat with some Trump regime colleagues where he disclosed U.S. plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen. After getting caught leaking such sensitive information on an unsecure platform, Hegseth lied that he had done so, despite the documented evidence.

Making matters worse, on Monday it was reported that the incident above was not a one-off. According to NBC News

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used his personal phone to send information about U.S. military operations in Yemen to a 13-person Signal group chat, including his wife and his brother, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to NBC News. He did so after an aide had warned him to be careful not to share sensitive information on an unsecure communications system before the Yemen operation, the sources said.”

This new revelation has prompted more questions from the press about Hegseth’s alleged competence. And the Trump team is reacting in its typical manner by circling the wagons and denying reality. However, in this case, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, may have said a bit too much. In response to a question by Brian Kilmeade on Fox News, Leavitt let loose insisting that…

“The president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth, who is doing a phenomenal job leading the Pentagon. And this is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and against the monumental change that you are trying to implement. […] Unfortunately, there have been people at that building who don’t like the change the Secretary is trying to bring, so they are leaking and they are lying to the mainstream media.”

Leavitt: "The president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth … this is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change you are trying to implement. Secretary Hegseth was nominated because he's standing up for the warfighters."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-21T14:17:35.963Z

Leavitt’s declaration that Trump “stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth” is not going to age well when Hegseth is eventually fired. And how could he not be, if what Leavitt says is true. If “the entire Pentagon is working against” Hegseth, his continued employment should be untenable. There are 20,000 people working in the Pentagon. It wouldn’t make much sense to fire all of them and keep Hegseth, would it? And how the heck can he command a workforce of that many people who think that he is unfit to serve?

You have to wonder by what measure Trump and Leavitt regard Hegseth as “doing a phenomenal job.” He has done nothing but embarrass the nation with his malfeasance in office and multiple hits on Fox News. He even took time out from the White House Easter Egg event to whine to the media about the media…

This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me. Because we’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war-fighters. And anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn’t matter.”

At the WH Easter egg hunt, Hegseth this morning pathetically blames the media for what his own appointees disclosed about his latest scandals.

Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T14:00:50.254Z

There is an abundance of derp in that whine. First of all, how can he blame the media for reporting what they have been told by his own top aides? Secondly, the news is not old. It was reported today. Third, it isn’t anonymous. The names of the sources are in the stories. Finally, those “disgruntled former employees” are people that Hegseth hired himself in the few weeks that he’s been on the job.

This is what you get when you put people in charge of critical government agencies who have never demonstrated any ability or aptitude to perform those jobs. And so many people in Trump’s Cabinet suffer from the same lack of experience and skill. A shockingly large number of them (20 so far) are, like Hegseth, from Fox News. Consequently, it is fair to assume that things are gonna get worse going forward. So buckle up, America. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

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Trump’s Defense Secretary Rages that ‘The Department of Defense Does Not Do Climate Change Crap’

When Donald Trump recruited Pete Hegseth from Fox News to lead his Department of Defense, it was unarguably among the worst nominations in the history of the country. Hegseth had zero experience in military management, or in leading an enterprise on the scale of the Pentagon. He was just a weekend talking head on a propaganda network. So what could go wrong?

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Donald Trump Climate Change

Since his confirmation, Hegseth has proven to be just as incompetent and corrupt as his lack of experience and judgment predicted. In his brief tenure to date he has fully embraced the agenda of Trump and co-president Elon Musk to decimate the Defense Department. And to make sure that nobody gets any reliable information about that, he has banished credible news outlets from the Pentagon and replaced them MAGA media hacks.

SEE THIS: Trump Kicks Reporters Out of Pentagon Offices, Replaces Them with MAGA Media Mouthpieces

Determined to diminish the military readiness of the United States, Trump and Hegseth continue to implement policies that will surely delight Trump’s idol and mentor, Vladimir Putin. Among them is an official rejection of the risks posed by climate change. In response to a news story on the subject, Hegseth posted a tweet that said only that, “The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap.”

The CNN article that Hegseth was so cavalierly dismissing was an in-depth analysis of how the climate crisis would impact America’s military engagements around the world. It said in part that…

“As the Pentagon and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] set their sights on climate-related programs at the Defense Department, officials and experts are warning that slashing them could put US troops and military operations at risk, both in the near and long term.”

Despite the well-reasoned insights by experts in military matters and meteorology, Hegseth felt comfortable posting his pithy little reply that wasn’t merely a blind disagreement with the science, but a childish insult characterizing the nearly universal consensus on climate as “crap.” His bullheaded ignorance is very likely going to result in catastrophes for American soldiers, as well as America’s military strength worldwide.

For the record, Hegseth’s views – and Trump’s – are contrary to those of prior secretaries of defense. And that includes one of Trump’s own from his first term, James Mattis, who warned that

“Climate change is real, and a threat to American interests abroad and the Pentagon’s assets everywhere. [And that] this is a real-time issue, not some distant what-if. Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.”

MORE HERE: Trump’s Defense Secretary Says Climate Change Is a Real Threat to American Interests

Mattis wasn’t the first Defense Secretary to issue such a warning. Fourteen years prior, under George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon published a report titled ‘An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.’ that warned that “threats to global stability posed by rapid warming vastly eclipse that of terrorism.”

These views were shared by at least seven of the past Secretaries of Defense (Mattis, Ash Carter, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates, Rumsfeld, and another Trump appointee, Mark Esper), who all subscribed to the policy that climate change is one of America’s top strategic risks. And five of the seven are Republicans.

The military has been crystal clear for decades about the very real consequences of a world where water and arable land become scarce, and nations erupt into chaos and war. Migration, border disputes, and even the habitability of the bases the U.S. has around the world are all risk factors that the military have long recognized as critical to our national security.

While this dangerous rejection of reality is reprehensible, it isn’t surprising. After all, Trump has long been a climate change denier. And a pretty asinine one at that. He still believes that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China.

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Trump Kicks Reporters Out of Pentagon Offices, Replaces Them with MAGA Media Mouthpieces

One thing you can say about Donald Trump is that he is working furiously to assure his place in American history as the nation’s first tyrannical despot. No American leader has ever been more hostile to the U.S. Constitution and its democratic principles, or more determined to destroy it.

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Donald Trump

Trump spends most of his time disparaging American institutions and the patriots who serve them. He despises the justice system, the military, free enterprise, academia, science, and even unbiased practices of faith. But perhaps the liberties that he is most averse to are those specifically cited in the First Amendment that protect freedom of the press. He is laser focused on turning the whole of government into a propaganda factory to attack his foes and exalt himself.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Pledges to Plant Pro-Trump Crackpots in the White House Press Room

On Friday Trump issued a new decree to banish several media organizations from offices that they have occupied in the Pentagon for decades. The Department of Defense provided the office space to facilitate access for journalists to the stewards of the nation’s military. However, the message sent by Trump’s DoD is an unmistakable threat to press freedom, and an embrace of shameless propaganda. NBC News, one of the news outlets ousted reports that

“NBC News, The New York Times, NPR and Politico must vacate their office spaces in two weeks for other news organizations — including at least one that did not request to be added.”

[And that…]

“The new outlets rotating in are One America News Network — which will take NBC News’s spot — the New York Post, Breitbart News Network and HuffPost.”

Needless to say, the Trump-fluffing One America News, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, and MAGA’s own Breitbart News, are not exactly paragons of journalistic integrity. But that’s who is moving into the office space previously reserved for more mainstream media sources that, even with their own imperfect records, are at least not brazenly sycophantic toadies who exist only to kiss Trump’s…let’s say ring. The NBC report added that the Pentagon…

“…did not include further details about the process of the new ‘rotation program,’ including how officials chose which outlets needed to vacate office space first, how the new outlets were chosen and which are next.”

Based on the disreputable outlets that are moving in, we hardly need much elaboration as to how they were chosen. And this is one of the first command decisions of Trump’s new Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, whose confirmation squeaked by in the Senate, despite his history of abusing women and alcohol, and his woeful lack of relevant experience.

This assault on freedom of the press is consistent with Trump’s long held belief that the media is “the enemy of people.” However, it is not the only assault he has made targeting a variety of American liberties. In the short time since he has reoccupied the White House, Trump has…

And this is only the beginning. He is dead set on transforming America into the sort of totalitarian dystopia that his heroes – Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, etc. – are lording over. But he isn’t going to have a clear path to his dictatorial dreams. The American people are not going to sit still while he dismantles democracy. And they already have a decidedly negative opinion him…

MORE HERE: Trump 2.0 Begins with Approval Ratings that Rank Below Every Other President Dating Back to 1953

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