Pete Hegseth Directly Compares Trump to Jesus Amid AI Post Scandal
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is preaching from the Pentagon pulpit again.
In the midst of an Iran war briefing Thursday, Hegseth delivered a sermon from the Defense Department’s press room dais, scolding the American press for its “relentlessly negative” coverage of the Trump administration and comparing journalists to the biblical Pharisees.
“A note to the press corps, as I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage,” Hegseth said, referring to America’s myriad journalistic organizations as if they operate as some ubiquitous entity. “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out which side some of you are actually on. It’s incredibly unpatriotic.
“This past Sunday I was sitting in church with my family, and our minister preached from the Book of Mark, the third chapter. And in the passage, Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand.
“The Pharisees came to watch, and as the Scripture reads, they came to see whether He, Jesus, would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. You see, the Pharisees, the so-called elites of their time, were there to witness, to write everything down, to report. But their hearts were hardened,” Hegseth said.
“Even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” Hegseth continued. “I sat there in church, and I thought, ‘These press are just like these Pharisees.’ Not all of you, but the legacy, Trump-hating press.”
Hegseth then asked the press to “open their eyes” to the “historic goodness” of America’s military might, the recent developments in the war in Iran (which includes thousands of dead civilians, 13 dead U.S. service members, and internal reports that regional American bases were caught off guard), “historic recruiting numbers,” and two “miracle” search-and-rescue operations.
Hegseth: To the American media—I just can't help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on. It's incredibly unpatriotic.
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 16, 2026
Jesus entered a… pic.twitter.com/6K7mMK3yCq
The Pentagon chief was apparently undeterred by recent backlash to the Trump administration’s explicit evangelical bent.
Over the weekend, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ to his Truth Social acount, setting off sparks among even some of his most ardent supporters. Several self-identified Trump voters interviewed by MS NOW said that they were “disgusted” and “ashamed” of the image, which depicted Trump as a haloed messiah. Trump deleted the image shortly afterward, telling reporters that he believed it illustrated him as a doctor healing people.
Federal employees across the executive branch have also complained about the administration’s hyperfixation on Christianity, claiming that the religious inclusions—which flagrantly defy the First Amendment and the Founders’ intention to separate church and state—have made the government a very uncomfortable place to work. Other, non-Christian staffers have expressed that the environment has made them fearful of potential retaliation within the workplace for failing to homogeneously identify as the same religion as their leadership.
Somehow, those aren’t the administration’s only recent Christian faux pas. The White House is also in the middle of a feud with Pope Leo XIV, who has apparently upset the president and a number of Trump’s underlings by advocating for world peace. Last week, reports emerged that the Pentagon had openly threatened a Vatican ambassador in January, days after the pope made antiwar remarks during his State of the World address.