Department’s rapid response team is weaponizing the social platform to champion defense secretary and attack rivals
While it’s true no president or political leader has ever used social media quite as prolifically as Donald Trump, no recent secretary of defense has ever weaponized X or any other platform, quite like former Fox & Friends weekend host, Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth is actively reshaping the Pentagon in his own image since taking over, prompting a social media policy that has taken a dramatic turn towards supporting Hegseth’s every move and public appearance.
Part of that has been the resurrection of the Pentagon’s so-called “rapid response team”. Originally the name of a public relations brainchild of former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld to combat what he saw as Iraq war disinformation, the new team seems to have a similar mandate according to its X account: “Fighting Fake News!”
So far, it has already garnered criticism for its excessive and partisan attacks on reporters and cheerleading of Hegseth, in what appears to be a media strategy bent on going on the offensive. The result is an apparent information warfare tool that flirts with fascistic takes and merges religion with a cult of personality surrounding Hegseth.
