Trump MAGA senator talks tough about Hegseth and gets put on blast (2025)

Embattled U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth might be holding onto his job by his fingernails, but when a GOP lawmaker came out swinging for President Donald Trump’s Pentagon pick, the internet wasn’t having it.

“LOL, Senator Mullen never served a day of his life but he is a multi-millionaire who likes to tweet like he stormed the beaches of Normandy. We recommend he resign and go enlist so he can ‘lead the breach’ and stuff,” the advocacy group VoteVets posted to X on Tuesday.

A day earlier, U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullen, R-Okla., took to social media to assert that when it comes to Hegseth, he would “lead the breach. I will lay down cover fire. I will take the high ground. I’ll expose myself to enemy fire to communicate. We must bring back integrity, focus, and put the Warfighter first inside DOD. I stand with @SecDef @PeteHegseth."

Another user posted a photo of Mullin taking cover inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump’s supporters stormed the building.

It didn’t stop there.

Fred Wellman, an Army combat vet, and the host of the On Democracy podcast, also weighed in with a fiery post of his own.

“YOU’RE A [expletive] PLUMBER! YOU’VE NEVER SERVED!!! You could have but you didn’t. We had the longest war in U.S. history and you sat that shit out the whole time but now you want to be a big tough guy for the idiot that can’t keep a secret. You’re such a [expletive] joke. No one is scared of you. Go clear a drain of your own [expletive].

The White House expressed support this week for Hegseth following media reports that he shared sensitive military details in another Signal messaging chat, this time with his wife and brother.

Neither the White House nor Hegseth denied that he had shared such information in a second chat, instead focusing their responses on what they called the disgruntled workers whom they blamed for leaking to the media and insisting that no classified information had been disclosed.

The administration’s posture was meant to hold the line against Democratic demands for Hegseth’s dismissal at a time when the Pentagon is engulfed in turmoil, including the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks.

The latest news added to questions about the judgment of the embattled Pentagon chief, coming on top of last month’s disclosure of his participation in a Signal chat with top Trump administration leaders in which details about the military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants were shared.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.