Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host and current defense secretary, is currently in Germany visiting U.S. troops overseas and spoke with reporters on Tuesday about a range of topics, from America’s military presence in Africa to potential cuts at the Pentagon. But it was Hegseth’s comments on climate change that are raising the most eyebrows on social media.
“The Defense Department is not in the business of climate change, solving the global thermostat,” Hegseth told reporters. “We’re in the business of deterring and winning wars.”
Hegseth’s insistence that the Department of Defense isn’t interested in climate change would be news to all of the people at the Pentagon who are very concerned about what rising sea levels mean for DoD property around the world. The Defense Department has 128 coastal military installations in the U.S. alone, valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, and they face serious danger as the planet warms. The Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed 18 U.S. military installations in 2016 and found 16 of them were at risk of flooding 100 times per year by 2050.
Hegseth was speaking Tuesday after being asked about Musk’s reported interest in the Pentagon and cutting spending on U.S. military programs. A reporter asked about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, something Hegseth didn’t address.
“I’ve been in touch with Elon Musk, who’s a great patriot, interested in advancing the American First Agenda, knows that President Trump got 77 million votes in a mandate from the American people,” Hegseth said. “And part of that is bringing actual business-like efficiency to government, hence what DOGE is doing.”
Musk’s company SpaceX has billions of dollars worth of contracts with the Department of Defense. And the White House has previously said that Musk will police his own conflicts of interest, being the judge of what he shouldn’t be involved in.
“We’ve been talking to them in partnership with them, and as I said on social media, we welcome DOGE to the Pentagon,” Hegseth continued. “And I hope to welcome Elon to the Pentagon very soon and his team. Working in collaboration with us. There is, there are waste redundancies and headcounts and headquarters that need to be addressed.”
The U.S. government is currently being ransacked by Elon Musk and his gang of dispshit goons who have set up shop in federal agencies. They’ve gained access to highly sensitive information, reportedly sometimes even getting administrator privileges despite promises their access was just “read-only.”
Curiously, Hegseth was asked about President Trump’s call for NATO countries to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense. The reporter asked if the U.S. should also spend 5% of its GDP on defense, and Hegseth gave a very slippery response.
“Well, I think the U.S. needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically under-invested in the capabilities of our military,” said Hegseth. “So the President is committed, as he was in the first term, to rebuilding America’s military by investing.”
The entire press conference is available online thanks to DVIDS, the U.S. military’s media distribution service.
We’ll see if Musk and his DOGE team decide to keep DVIDS funding intact as they focus their gaze on the Pentagon’s billions or if it’s just the research on climate change and outreach for black recruits that gets the ax.