{"id":2426010,"date":"2025-04-22T05:14:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-hegseth-op-illustrates-d-c-s-bid-to-protect-the-status-quo\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T05:14:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:14:25","slug":"anti-hegseth-op-illustrates-d-c-s-bid-to-protect-the-status-quo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-hegseth-op-illustrates-d-c-s-bid-to-protect-the-status-quo\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Hegseth Op Illustrates D.C.&#8217;s Bid To Protect The Status Quo"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanti-hegseth-op-illustrates-d-c-s-bid-to-protect-the-status-quo%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2426010&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>While millions of Americans were commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ this past weekend, a cabal of media propagandists and D.C. insiders was busy formulating a seemingly coordinated campaign to take down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n<p>Within hours of one another, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.md\/tFdZh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The New York Times<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/04\/20\/pentagon-chaos-ullyot-hegseth-00205594\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Politico<\/a> dropped hit pieces on Sunday against the Pentagon chief. The pieces were apparently aimed at undermining his leadership of America&rsquo;s military. While the former used anonymous sources to try and revive the media&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/27\/media-efforts-to-turn-signalgate-into-a-scandal-are-the-surest-sign-its-not-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;Signalgate&rdquo; dud<\/a>, the latter ran an op-ed from a former Defense Department spokesman &mdash; who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/04\/16\/top-pentagon-official-resigns-00295381\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">resigned<\/a> last week after evidently failing to get the Pentagon job he wanted &mdash; alleging &ldquo;total chaos&rdquo; at the agency under Hegseth&rsquo;s direction.<\/p>\n<p>NPR decided to join the pile-on, publishing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/04\/21\/nx-s1-5371312\/trump-white-house-pete-hegseth-defense-department\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">piece<\/a> on Monday containing allegations from an unnamed &ldquo;U.S. official&rdquo; that the White House &ldquo;has begun the process of looking for a new leader at the Pentagon to replace Pete Hegseth.&rdquo; The White House <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PressSec\/status\/1914371752685076757\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">quickly shot down<\/a> the claim.<\/p>\n<p>The articles were published on the heels of a major shake-up at the Pentagon last week, which saw the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/axed-pentagon-aides-claim-character-slandered-little-details-were-shared-about-leak-investigation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dismissal<\/a> of several high-level advisers over claims of unauthorized leaking. The officials have since denied the allegations. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SecDef Hegseth: &ldquo;What a surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia Hoax. This is what the media does. Not going to work with me.&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QaHx157djs\">pic.twitter.com\/QaHx157djs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theblaze\/status\/1914321530298712413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>While Democrats have predictably <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5258507-senator-duckworth-call-for-hegseth-resignation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">latched<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenSchumer\/status\/1914084912010870816\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">onto<\/a> these new hatchet jobs to re-up their <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/28\/the-d-c-swamps-bid-to-take-out-hegseth-is-a-disgrace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">demands<\/a> for Hegseth to lose his job, the media&rsquo;s latest &ldquo;bombshells&rdquo; aren&rsquo;t the earth-shattering scandals<strong> <\/strong>they wish they were. If anything, the use of anonymous sources and disgruntled former colleagues is straight out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/27\/hegseths-confirmation-is-another-humiliating-defeat-for-americas-propaganda-press\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">same playbook<\/a> these &ldquo;journalists&rdquo; have been <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/28\/the-d-c-swamps-bid-to-take-out-hegseth-is-a-disgrace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">running<\/a> to try and oust Hegseth since he was tapped to lead the Pentagon last year. <\/p>\n<p>But as desperate as this latest anti-Hegseth campaign may seem, it&rsquo;s critical to understand the motivations behind these new hit pieces and why these actors are so dead set on taking down President Trump&rsquo;s defense secretary.<\/p>\n<p>For one, consider the greater political conversation engulfing the media in the days leading up to Sunday&rsquo;s &ldquo;bombshells.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Democrats and their buddies in the corporate press spent the entirety of last week <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/15\/the-maryland-man-hoax-is-designed-to-criminalize-immigration-enforcement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fomenting outrage<\/a> about the Trump administration&rsquo;s deportation of a Salvadoran national with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3382729\/dhs-reveals-evidence-abrego-garcia-ms-13-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged ties to MS-13<\/a> back to El Salvador. Without a drop of shame, these propagandists characterized this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/maryland-man-kilmar-abrego-garcia-exposed-police-records-violent-repeat-wife-beater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged wife-beater<\/a> as just a &ldquo;Maryland man,&rdquo; with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., even going as far as to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/20\/us-news\/sen-chris-van-hollen-repeatedly-sidesteps-whether-kilmar-abrego-garcia-was-ms-13-gangbanger-when-asked-on-cnn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">travel<\/a> to El Salvador to meet the deported noncitizen.<\/p>\n<p>For a party with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/03\/16\/politics\/cnn-poll-democrats\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">record-low favorability ratings<\/a> among the American people, running to the defense of an illegal alien credibly accused of being affiliated with a deadly gang isn&rsquo;t exactly great optics. It&rsquo;s clear Democrats needed a narrative change fast, and their media allies&rsquo; new anti-Hegseth blitz represented the perfect off-ramp.<\/p>\n<p>Second, and more important, the D.C. establishment&rsquo;s continued campaign to oust Hegseth comes from its fervent opposition to the much-needed change he&rsquo;s bringing to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>For years, the Defense Department has operated within the best interests of the agency&rsquo;s higher-ups and D.C.&rsquo;s notorious <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/military-industrial-complex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defense-industrial complex<\/a>. While high-ranking officials used their coveted positions of influence to advance neo-Marxist ideologies throughout the Pentagon and defense contractors got rich off of America&rsquo;s military involvement in nonsensical overseas conflicts, rank-and-file service members&rsquo; needs were ignored, the country&rsquo;s military infrastructure crumbled, and the priority of winning wars went out the window.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike his predecessors, Hegseth is someone who comes from outside this incestuous system that&rsquo;s responsible for the decay witnessed throughout America&rsquo;s armed forces. Much like Trump, he&rsquo;s a disruptor &mdash; and by every measure, he&rsquo;s doing exactly what the president appointed him to do. <\/p>\n<p>Since taking over the reins at the DOD, Hegseth has overseen a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/21\/trump-kickstarts-military-revitalization-with-new-6th-generation-fighter-jet-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noticeable rise<\/a> in military recruiting, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/hegseth-quips-99-9-percent-dei-initiatives-gone-from-military-under-trumps-watch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eliminated<\/a> divisive and destructive DEI ideology, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/31\/hegseth-signs-memo-ordering-return-to-sex-neutral-standards-in-the-military\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">restored<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/07\/if-congress-doesnt-step-in-rogue-judges-will-trans-the-military\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">standards<\/a> to military service, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/31\/pentagon-scraps-biden-era-policy-subsidizing-travel-expenses-for-employee-abortions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">scrapped<\/a> the Pentagon&rsquo;s immoral and illegal Biden-era abortion policy, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/09\/how-dei-left-service-academies-in-a-state-of-decay-and-how-trump-can-fix-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ended<\/a> racist affirmative action policies at U.S. military academies, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/News-Stories\/Article\/Article\/4134243\/hegseth-gives-order-to-enhance-military-mission-at-southern-border\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">directed<\/a> military assets to protect America&rsquo;s borders, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/houthis-raise-death-toll-in-yemen-oil-port-attack-to-80-fresh-us-strikes-reported\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">carried out<\/a> strikes on Houthi terrorists, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/14\/hegseth-guts-pentagon-office-that-gifted-lucrative-contracts-to-famed-russia-collusion-hoaxer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>One would also be hard pressed to find another defense secretary like Hegseth, who regularly <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecDef\/status\/1912824609780465976\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">works out<\/a> alongside active-duty service members and listens to their concerns and thoughts on military policy. Contrast this behavior with that of Joe Biden&rsquo;s noticeably overweight defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who was seemingly too busy kicking out troops who were unvaccinated for Covid to care about their perspectives on issues facing the force.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their collective shrieking, the loudest voices within the D.C. establishment aren&rsquo;t concerned that Hegseth doesn&rsquo;t have what it takes to lead the Pentagon. Rather, they&rsquo;re afraid of the changes he is and will continue to implement that directly disrupt the status quo they&rsquo;ve spent years protecting. <\/p>\n<p>If Hegseth&rsquo;s tenure as defense secretary thus far is what &ldquo;total chaos&rdquo; is supposed to look like, then by all means keep it coming.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While many Americans celebrated Easter, media insiders launched attacks on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2426011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Pete-Hegseth.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2426010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Pete-Hegseth.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2426010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2426012,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426010\/revisions\/2426012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2426011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2426010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2426010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2426010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}