'Knows he's a joke': Capitol Hill goes nuclear on Hegseth after mid-war 'score-settling'

WASHINGTON — "Weak sauce." "A joke." "A performance artist." That's how a West Point grad and Army vet on the Armed Services Committee described Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, who is running the Department of Defense in the middle of a war.

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) didn't mince words Wednesday after Hegseth fired Navy Secretary John Phelan, effective immediately, with no explanation given, while U.S. warships actively blockaded Iranian ports.

“It's more score settling. The revenge tour. In the middle of a war. In the middle of a naval blockade," he lamented to Raw Story.

Ryan added, "He pretends to be tough but has the thinnest skin and is weak sauce. He knows he's in — and this is true, I'm not just saying — he knows, like, every military officer and senior leader knows he's a joke and he's a performance artist. So they all do not take him seriously."

Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), a former Army Ranger who served with the 82nd Airborne in Iraq and the elite 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan Serve America, piled on, noting the Armed Services Committee got zero heads-up.

"So it's very disturbing. We're going to obviously be pressing to get information about why this is happening and what is the basis for these firings," Crow told Raw Story.

Since Trump's return to office, the chair of the Joint Chiefs, the chief of naval operations, the Coast Guard commandant, and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency have all been shown the door.

Just three weeks before Phelan's ouster, Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George mid-war. Phelan himself, a billionaire and major Trump campaign donor, had clashed repeatedly with Hegseth before Wednesday's ax fell after 13 tumultuous months at the Pentagon.

Hegseth sent Phelan a message telling him to resign or be fired, but Phelan didn't believe Trump was aware and began phoning White House officials asking whether the president even knew.

Ryan put it more colorfully.

"So Hegseth calls Phelan, tells him to resign or be fired. Phelan doesn't believe Hegseth, so he goes — literally, physically himself — goes to the White House to say, basically, like 'mommy and Daddy, is this true?' And Trump's like, 'yeah, no it's true.'"

Ryan concluded that with half a trillion in new defense spending demanded and the Pentagon failing audits, the ones paying the price are "our troops in theater — and literally every American at the gas pump."