
Pete Hegseth's troops mock him behind his back with devastating new nickname for Pentagon
April 3, 2026
Raw Story
AI Analysis: Name Calling
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is being mocked behind his back by servicemembers, who have come up with a devastating new nickname for the Pentagon under his leadership, according to The Daily Beast.Per the report, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Marine combat veteran, confirmed to MS NOW reporters that, “I know active-duty Marines who now refer to Pete Hegseth’s department as the Department of War Crimes.

That’s because they do things like this, destroy civilian infrastructure, which, just to be clear, is a war crime.”Department of War Crimes is a reference to President Donald Trump's executive order declaring the Department of Defense the Department of War — which carries no official weight without an act of Congress — and to the fact that the administration is threatening explicit war crimes in the conflict with Iran.Hegseth himself recently proclaimed no quarter will be given with Iran, which is against international law and the U.S. military handbook to even threaten to do.Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to take out civilian energy infrastructure in Iran, which would also constitute a war crime since the only purpose is to worsen the living conditions of regular Iranian civilians.Legal experts have also questioned the constitutionality of Hegseth’s strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, which Trump ordered last June, as well as the legality under both domestic and international law of multiple strikes against alleged narco-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, during which Hegseth is accused of issuing an illegal no-survivors attack order, the report added.This comes at a moment where Hegseth is also under fire for an unprecedented purge of leadership at the Pentagon.
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Technique: Name Calling
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