Trump's Defense Secretary accused of lying to the president

President Donald Trump has so far fired his first Homeland Security Secretary (Kristi Noem), attorney general (Pam Bondi) and Labor Secretary (Lori Chavez-DeRemer), but his Defense Secretary seems to be secure in his job — despite a former Republican presidential adviser recently describing him as “he Most Ignominious Military Leader of All Time.”

Quoting Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, former President George W. Bush adviser Steve Schmidt observed that Pete Hegseth “is incompetent — but it's worse than that. He said that he's a danger — but it's worse than that. He talked about something more elemental, more core to character. He talked about something that he's seen — and remember, he's an Army Ranger, a combat veteran — he talked about a blackness in Pete Hegseth's heart. He talked about something that's wrong with him.”

More simply, Schmidt said that Hegseth “is unfit, and he's a danger” and perhaps most notably “is not telling Donald Trump the truth.” Per the last point, Schmidt quoted Crow’s recent questioning of Hegseth about his hiring of Tim Parlatore as Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense. Hegseth commissioned Parlatore into the Navy Reserve in March 2025, which bypassed the vetting and oversight process of the White House Presidential Personnel Office. Parlatore previously worked as Hegseth’s personal attorney back when the future Cabinet member was accused of sexual assault. He has also represented soldiers accused of war crimes and praised attorneys who represented Trump’s longtime friend, the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Although it is unclear whether Parlatore has conflicts of interest or ties to foreign entities, he was included on an unsecured Signal thread in which Hegseth shared classified information about strikes against Yemen.

Even though Trump’s legal team once accused Parlatore of lying and being “unstable,” and removed him from overseeing investigations into former Defense Department aides because of his and Hegseth’s alleged lack of objectivity, Parlatore reportedly still works for Hegseth.

“Crow has made clear this is his angle of attack,” Schmidt said during his podcast. “And it's important to remember the old motto of the Rangers: Rangers lead the way. What Jason Crow is saying here — that so unnerved Pete Hegseth — is this: not that you're a bad Secretary of Defense, not that you're incompetent, but that I caught you lying to Donald Trump again.”

Schmidt then quoted Hegseth refusing to directly answer questions about whether Parlatore had a security clearance when he was appointed as special advisor, whether Parlatore was accused of lying by the president's legal team and whether Parlatore is working for the government behind the president's back.

In addition to being accused of hiring unqualified people as advisers, Hegseth has been accused of blatantly politicizing the military, which is supposed to be nonpartisan.

“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of Congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth recently said during an official statement. He was quickly corrected by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, who quoted General George C. Marshall by saying that commitment to a non-partisan military "remains a constant standard and something I borrow from often."

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