Like a turtle on its back, Pete Hegseth is floundering.

On Friday, while Americans celebrated the long Thanksgiving Day weekend, the Pentagon chief celebrated his reported “no quarter” order to kill survivors of the first of dozens of strikes on purported Venezuelan drug boats with a meme on social media depicting the children’s book character, Franklin the Turtle, hanging from a helicopter and firing on suspected drug runners.

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Pete Hegseth shredded over “pathetic” speech to military leaders: “Most loser sh*t I have ever seen”

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“For your Christmas wish list,” Hegseth wrote from his personal X account.

The post was universally criticized.

“A civilized people respect life given by God and don’t treat lightly taking of life no matter how vile that life was used,” The New York Times quoted one X user in reply. “That meme was far from Christian. It was bloodlust.”

Even President Trump has distanced himself from his so-called Secretary of War, professing “100%” support for the former Fox News talking head while disagreeing with his reported order to “kill everybody” on the fast boat off the Venezuelan coast.

“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” the president said on Sunday of the survivors of the first strike, while adding, “I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike.”

Hegseth lashed out at the media over the report from the Washington Post last week that he ordered the killing, accusing the “fake news” of “delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”

Congress members and experts in the laws of war say the order amounted to “murder”.

The administration was scrambling on Monday to contain the fallout and insulate Trump from Hegseth’s blunder. They showed little success.

Even perpetually smug 28-year-old White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was back on her heels, if not on her back like Hegseth.

Uncharacteristically stumbling over her words, Leavitt read straight from a script describing the administration’s official position.

“The strike conducted on September 2 was conducted in self-defense to protect Americans in vital United States interests,” the secretary blurted from the prepared text.

But the criticism of Hegseth continues to mount.

“Pete Hegseth is incompetent, reckless, and a threat to our national security,” posted out U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT). “He needs to go.”

Balint and other members of the congressional Equality Caucus have watched with dismay and outrage as Hegseth carried out President Trump’s latest ban on transgender service members, dismantled DEI in the military, banned LGBTQ+ content from libraries under his purview, and even stripped a Navy ship of its name honoring veteran Harvey Milk.

A leaked Signal chat in April revealed Hegseth inadvertently shared classified plans for an airstrike in Yemen with the editor of Atlantic Monthly.

The latest accusation from defense officials under Hegseth’s command came just days after six former members of the military currently serving in Congress, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), posted a video on social media reminding officers and troops they are duty-bound not to follow illegal orders from their leaders, reaching all the way up the chain of command to Hegseth and Trump.

The congressmembers’ chief concern was the administration “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens” in illegal immigration sweeps and the occupation of Washington, DC, and other Democrat-run cities. It also foreshadowed the current allegations against Hegseth.

“Americans trust their military, but that trust is under threat,” they said.

Hegseth and Trump both lashed out at the members, with Trump calling their behavior “seditious”.

“Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand,” he posted to his Truth Social platform. “An example MUST BE SET.”

Hegseth described the group of vets as the “Seditious Six” and called for Kelly’s court-martial, as he threatened service members who may disobey an illegal command.

“Orders are presumed to be lawful,” Hegseth claimed. What he termed “personal philosophy” does not excuse “disobedience.”

Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) didn’t have to tie himself in knots to arrive at his description of Hegseth: “How about the ‘Seriously Stupid Secretary’ or the “Sack-of-Sh*t Secretary’?” Pocan asked in a post in reply to Hegseth’s outburst.

“This is deeply embarrassing for our country to have a 34 time felon as Commander-In-Chief and a Fox talking head of a cabinet secretary. Living Idiocracy 2.”

The latest accusations against the former Fox & Friends Weekend host earned the head of the renamed “Department of War” a new moniker from Jimmy Kimmel, one of Hegseth’s most enthusiastic critics: “Secretary of War Crimes.”

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