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Jilly_in_VA

(14,405 posts)
Sat Apr 4, 2026, 01:36 PM Yesterday

Pentagon Pete's Own Troops Ridicule Him With Dark Nickname

President Donald Trump’s defense secretary has overseen so many alleged atrocities that his department has earned a horrifying new nickname from the people who work there.

“I know active-duty Marines who now refer to Pete Hegseth’s department as the Department of War Crimes,” Rep. Seth Moulton, himself a Marine combat veteran, told MS NOW.

“That’s because they do things like this, destroy civilian infrastructure, which, just to be clear, is a war crime,” the Massachusetts Democrat went on, referring to Trump’s intention, announced Wednesday, to begin targeting Iranian civilian energy infrastructure as part of the his war on Iran.

“It’s meant to hurt civilians,” Moulton went on. “This is the same stuff we criticized Vladimir Putin for doing in Ukraine.”

The “Department of War Crimes” moniker combines Hegseth’s rebrand of the Department of Defense as the “Department of War” with the accusations he has faced of carrying out war crimes and other violations of international law in pursuit of the president’s foreign policy agenda.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-hegseths-own-troops-ridicule-his-rebrand-with-dark-new-nickname/

Seems fitting.

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Pentagon Pete's Own Troops Ridicule Him With Dark Nickname (Original Post) Jilly_in_VA Yesterday OP
It would be tragic if the military secretly disappeared him Blue Owl Yesterday #1
Can they frag a Defense Secretary? DBoon Yesterday #4
He just gave them carry rights on post. I think anything could happen at this point! IrishAfricanAmerican Yesterday #5
"Dumb McNamara" personally too underpants Yesterday #2
I won't be surprised JBTaurus83 Yesterday #3

underpants

(196,584 posts)
2. "Dumb McNamara" personally too
Sat Apr 4, 2026, 01:54 PM
Yesterday

Pete Hegseth given brutal new nickname by Pentagon staffers, report says

Pentagon staffers are poking fun at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with a brutal nickname, according to a report published Tuesday.

Several officials have reportedly referred to Hegseth as “Dumb McNamara,” a comparison to former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who played a central role in expanding U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, current and former U.S. officials told Zeteo Tuesday.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-hegseth-trump-iran-nickname-dumb-mcnamara-b2946740.html

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