Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is facing mounting criticism over his conduct in office, with a Democratic congressman revealing embarrassing details about the 45-year-old’s performance during classified briefings. His increasingly erratic public behavior has alarmed national security experts.
James Walkinshaw, a member of the Military and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, described witnessing Hegseth struggle through classified sessions with senior military officials, unable to grasp basic strategic concepts or answer detailed questions.
“I see Pete Hegseth in classified briefings, and I am embarrassed for him,” Walkinshaw told reporters. The congressman added that Hegseth cannot move beyond prepared scripts and lacks understanding of tactical or operational questions.
The congressman’s assessment comes as Hegseth, a former Fox News host, oversees the ongoing war with Iran following the February 28, 2026 attack that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His management of the Pentagon has been marked by a series of controversial decisions and public outbursts that have raised concerns about his fitness for the role.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson announced earlier this month that the Defense Department would bar press photographers from briefings after Hegseth’s staff complained that recent photos made him look “unflattering.” The unprecedented move came after several news outlets captured images of Hegseth during tense briefings with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.
During a March 14, 2026 briefing, Hegseth erupted over media coverage of the Iran conflict, attacking CNN’s reporting as “fake news.” He then invoked the pending Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better!”
The defense secretary also clashed with NBC News correspondent Courtney Kube, dismissing her question as “a typical NBC sort of, gotcha type question.” When another female journalist pressed him on whether Americans deserve to know the objectives of the war, Hegseth snapped, “Did you not hear my remarks?”
Hegseth’s public statements reveal a long-standing antipathy toward Iran that national security experts say may be clouding his judgment. In his 2020 book “American Crusade,” he wrote that America is “always at war with Islamists” and that Iran’s leaders were seeking nuclear weapons. In a 2017 PragerU video, he called Iran “America’s mortal enemy,” and in a 2018 speech in Jerusalem, he referred to the country as “the octopus.”
His statements have frequently intertwined religious and geopolitical themes. In “American Crusade,” Hegseth wrote that Christians should “pick up the sword of unapologetic Americanism” alongside Israel, which he called “enemy number one for both Islamists and international leftists — which is reason alone to love it.”
The defense secretary’s conduct has also drawn scrutiny over his handling of classified information. In what became known as the Signalgate scandal, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal messaging group that included Hegseth and other senior national security officials, exposing sensitive discussions about military operations against Yemen’s Houthis in March 2025.
According to The Atlantic, Hegseth shared detailed operational information in the chat, including weapons systems and attack timing, before U.S. strikes commenced. A subsequent Pentagon inspector general investigation found that Hegseth had sent classified information on Signal that could have endangered U.S. personnel.
More recently, Hegseth sparked international controversy by declaring “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” during a March 13, 2026 briefing. Legal experts say such statements violate international law under the Hague Convention, which prohibits threats that no quarter will be given to enemy forces.
Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, called Hegseth’s rhetoric “very striking” and noted that even announcing “no quarter” from a government official can itself constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.
Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, criticized the administration’s handling of the Iran conflict. Parsi told interviewers that the administration had a plan for the regime to implode after the assassination of the supreme leader, but when that failed, they lacked a backup strategy.
Despite the mounting concerns, President Trump has stood by his defense secretary. Hegseth, who also sparked controversy in September 2025 with a speech demanding “no more fat generals” at Quantico, Virginia, continues to oversee military operations while facing questions about his leadership capabilities and judgment.