Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has responded to concerns about meager food supplies for sailors with a bizarre reference to a biblical Jewish group.
“More FAKE NEWS from the Pharisee Press,” Hegseth posted on X, comparing the media to an influential Jewish religious and social movement often portrayed in the New Testament as opposing Jesus.
It was the second time the defense secretary invoked the Pharisees this week to rail against critical media coverage. During a Thursday briefing, he compared the “Trump-hating press” to the Pharisees, positioning Trump as Jesus and bashing the media for daring to question him.
The latest biblical reference came in response to a report by USA Today that cited relatives of military members deployed to the Middle East who raised concerns about the food they were being provided, with photos appearing to show alarmingly small portions.
“My team confirmed the logistics stats for the Lincoln & Tripoli,” Hegseth wrote, adding, “Both have 30+ days of Class I supplies (food) on board. NavCent monitors this everyday, for every ship.”
The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations also denied allegations of food shortages aboard the ships.
But Hegseth was accused of using rhetoric often deployed in antisemitic tropes by invoking the Pharisees.
“Are you saying that Jews run the press and are trying to harm the military?” wrote Fred Guttenberg, a gun control advocate and father of a Parkland school shooting victim.
“So if the press are the New Testament Pharisees then who is Jesus is this dodgy analogy?” one user asked, while another posed a separate question for the secretary: “Do you know who the Pharisee’s were?”
And despite the secretary’s efforts to ease the Navy’s food concerns—including an increase in photos on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website showing sailors breaking out food aboard ships—other commenters pointed to Hegseth’s recent controversies to voice skepticism.
“It’s unfortunate I don’t believe a single word you say,” one user posted in response to Hegseth, while another shared a graphic of the secretary on a Pulp Fiction poster with the title changed to “Pete Fiction” and the caption, “I just make up stuff because I’m War Secretary.”
Hegseth was accused of feeding the president misleading information on the war in Iran in a report from The Washington Post earlier this month. More recently, he sparked ridicule for reading a prayer at a Pentagon press service derived largely from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.
“OK, I’m calling bs on this,” one user posted on X, adding, “I’m not saying there’s a food shortage, but i’ve had Navy food. I mean, its not horrible, but they really need to revamp their cooking school.”
In response to a request for comment, the Pentagon directed the Daily Beast to posts on X from Hegseth and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, as well as a post from the U.S. Navy showing photos of food deliveries for “sailors aboard USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Tripoli.”
The allegations that Navy personnel deployed in the Iran conflict are not receiving enough food come a month after an analysis by government watchdog Open the Books revealed the Defense Department spent more than $93 billion in September 2025 on various grants and contracts, as well as luxury items.
According to the report, Pentagon spending included a range of food items such as $124,000 on ice cream machines, more than $12,000 on fruit baskets, $6.9 million on lobster tail, $1 million on salmon, and nearly $140,000 on doughnuts.
In response to the Pentagon’s spending report, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office posted an AI-generated photo of Hegseth surrounded by food towers, captioned: “HEGSETH BLOWING $93 BILLION OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN 1 MONTH !!”
