Hegseth Leads Push to Punish Military Service Members Over Charlie Kirk Comments

The Pentagon has ramped up a political correctness crusade in the wake of the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. The military is taking disciplinary action against both enlisted troops and officers over social media posts regarding Kirk, who was shot last week at an event at Utah Valley University. In the wake of Kirk’s death, a number of X accounts began calling for their followers to find social media posts made by troops that they saw as being critical of — or even not sufficiently deferential to — Kirk or mocking or celebrating his death. The accounts began posting screenshots, tagging Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and other senior Pentagon officials and calling for the troops to be fired. The leaders of the U.S. military took note. “We WILL NOT tolerate those who celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American at the Department of War,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on X on Sunday. “It’s a violation of the oath, it’s conduct unbecoming, it’s a betrayal of the Americans they’ve sworn to protect & dangerously incompatible with military service.”  Hegseth added: “We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable.” Hegseth has previously been accused of calling for the death of fellow Americans before his time in office, when he allegedly chanted “Kill all Muslims,” and has railed against political correctness at the Pentagon. The secretary of war’s office refused to say if they knew the total number of service members who had been swept up in the crackdown. But one defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said dozens of personnel had or will face sanctions in the face of pressure by Hegseth, who knew Kirk personally. Last week, Task & Purpose reported that a Marine Corps recruiter had been demoted and was under investigation for a post on Instagram referencing Kirk. “Another racist man popped,” the Marine shared. His message included the emoji of two beer steins mid-toast. “The Marine in question has been relieved of his recruiting duties and the matter is currently under investigation,” a Marine spokesperson said. Army Col. Scott Stephens was suspended after he posted about Kirk on Facebook, according to reporting by The Gateway Pundit. “The death of Charlie Kirk in Utah was tragic. However, we can take comfort in the fact that Charlie was doing what he loved best — spreading messages of hate, racism, homophobia, misogyny and transphobia on college campuses,” he wrote. “It also allows us to see who in our lives support those views. I would offer empathy, but Charlie hated empathy. As we have been told in the wake of so many other tragedies, we have to move on.” “The Trump administration is trying to capitalize on this tragedy to further their agenda of erasing and reshaping the military into their own unconstitutional image.” Jacob Thomas, an Air Force veteran and communications director for Common Defense, a veterans advocacy group, said his organization had been working to combat political violence for years but was “deeply concerned by reported calls for a political purge inside our nation’s military.” “Service members swear an oath to defend the Constitution, not to enforce any single ideology or political litmus tests. What we’re seeing from the Pentagon goes beyond discipline; it is an alarming step toward authoritarianism within our military,” Thomas said. “It appears the Trump administration is trying to capitalize on this tragedy to further their agenda of erasing and reshaping the military into their own unconstitutional image.” Kirk’s legacy has been the subject of spirited debate in the days since he was killed. Kirk founded and led the right-wing organization Turning Point USA, which worked to advance what the Southern Poverty Law Center described as “a white-dominated, male supremacist, Christian social order.” Kirk was critical of gay and transgender rights. He was also a strong supporter of gun rights and believed that the benefits of robust protections for gun ownership outweighed the damage to society. “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said. The Pentagon’s push to stifle troops’ speech follows not just Kirk’s death but also the self-styled rechristening of the Department of Defense to the Department of War as part of the Trump administration’s strongman posturing. “We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” Hegseth said earlier this month. “Violent effect, not politically correct.” When asked about Hegseth’s sudden aboutface from decrying to promoting political correctness, Parnell, the spokesperson, deflected. “Celebrating the assassination of a fellow American is unacceptable at the Department of War. This common-sense stance is not in any way analogous to political correctness,” he told The Intercept. When it was suggested that Hegseth’s purge was the very definition of enforcing political correctness, Joel Valdez, the acting deputy press secretary at the Office of the Secretary of War, clapped back. “Disagree,” he wrote in an email, refusing to answer any of The Intercept’s questions. “That is all we are going to provide for your request.” Earlier this year, Hegseth introduced what he called a “No More Walking On Eggshells” policy, directing a review of equal opportunity programs and the processes for reporting and investigating harassment allegations. Hegseth complained that “these programs are weaponized” and said: “Some individuals use these programs in bad faith to retaliate against superiors or peers.” Military personnel have less robust First Amendment protections than other Americans and can be restricted in their expression in matters involving obscenity, political speech, threats or defamation, among other normally protected speech. Related Nancy Mace Targets Ilhan Omar in Charlie Kirk Speech Crackdown “The First Amendment provides that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech; this protection permits the expression of ideas, even the expression of ideas the vast majority of society finds offensive or distasteful; the sweep of this protection is less comprehensive in the military context, given the different character of the military community and mission,” reads a publication by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. “The government may place additional burdens on a servicemember’s First Amendment free speech rights due to the unique character of the military community and mission.” The Department of War’s recent embrace of so-called snitch culture follows efforts, earlier this year, to hunt for national security leaks by administering polygraph tests to top military officers, staffers, and even Trump-allied political appointees. That effort was eventually shut down by the White House. Hegseth’s current political correctness crusade is part of a broader campaign by public officials and others on the right to shame or punish public employees or private citizens for protected speech. Donald Trump and his allies have laid out a broad plan to target progressive groups and funders, monitor speech, revoke visas, and designate yet-unidentified organizations as domestic terrorists. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration will be “targeting” hate speech, which she differentiated from free speech. “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech,” Bondi said in an interview with “The Katie Miller Podcast” that aired on Monday, dismissing First Amendment concerns. “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything — and that’s across the aisle.”  Bondi later walked back the comments. The post Hegseth Leads Push to Punish Military Service Members Over Charlie Kirk Comments appeared first on The Intercept.