Hegseth tells Congress his ‘war fighters’ are primed for ‘lethality’ ... as he sends them to face American protesters

Pete Hegseth’s first congressional hearing as Defense Secretary was supposed to focus on budgetary matters, but the former soldier was not going to miss an opportunity to strike fear into the hearts of America’s enemies — in this case, a few hundred protesters in Los Angeles.

In his opening statement to the House Appropriations subcommittee, Hegseth delivered a made-for-Hollywood monologue about the U.S. military’s new “warrior ethos,” one that is focused squarely on “war fighting” and “lethality.”

So deadly are the soldiers under his command that the word “soldier” no longer suffices. In Hegseth’s Department of Defense, they are “war fighters” — a term he used repeatedly, implying an army of perpetually deployed and exhausted Rambo figures always searching for targets to shoot.

As he spoke, some 700 of these deadly war fighters had already left 29 Palms Marine base in the Southern California desert and were getting ready for their first deployment under his command.

Their destination? The deadly war zone of Los Angeles. Their target? The flag-waving street protesters who have wrought havoc on a few city blocks, prompting desperate calls for help from no one in the state.

Donald Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and the Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests against immigration raids in the city, against the wishes of California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has prompted outrage from Democrats and Angelenos. Newsom filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking for the Trump administration's use of the military to be "stopped immediately" by the court.

This is the first time since the 1960s that the National Guard has been activated without a request from the governor, and the first time since 1992, when Los Angeles was completely overrun by deadly riots, that Marines have been deployed on U.S. soil.

Still, Hegseth told Congress the president was justified in sending his lethal warfighters “to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere.”

When questioned about the suitability of sending an infantry force to handle a few unruly protesters, Hegseth insisted that his war fighters “have been fully trained in their capabilities of what they're executing on the ground.”

But hours later one of his officials had to correct the record, telling Fox News that the Marines would in fact need to undergo a few more days training at Seal Beach, south of Los Angeles, before they could be sent into battle against the window-smashers.

"The Marine unit is an infantry unit and needs to learn protocols for use of force in a domestic setting," a U.S. defense official told Fox News.

Hegseth clashed with Democrats on the panel, at one point justifying the deployment by accusing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz of having "abandoned a police precinct" during 2020 protests against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, arguing that Walz mobilized the National Guard too late.

“President Trump recognizes a situation like that, improperly handled by a governor, like it was by Governor Walz, if it gets out of control, is a bad situation for the citizens of any location,” Hegseth said.

“In Los Angeles, we believe that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country, especially after 21 million illegals have crossed our border under the previous administration,” he continued, echoing Defense Secretaries of times past by making things up to justify military action.

The weapons of mass destruction in this case are some looted shops, a few hundred protesters who clashed with police, some destroyed cop cars and five burned-out Waymo self-driving taxis. These scenes may look like anarchy when viewed through the fiery lens of a Fox News camera, one after the other. But many Angelenos reported the city largely carrying on as normal, with the protests concentrated mostly in downtown L.A.

If the U.S. military were to react in the same way every time the streets of a major city looked like this, tanks would descend on Philadelphia every time the City of Brotherly Love won a major sports trophy.

The House Appropriations Defense subcommittee hearing was the first time lawmakers have been able to question Hegseth since he was confirmed.

He spoke with pride in one breath about his cost-cutting measures at the Defense Department, and then sat with a straight face as his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, said it would cost $134 million to send troops to do battle with protesters.

Hegseth warned that the sight of U.S. soldiers pointing their weapons at protesting American citizens may become a more common sight going forward, casually raising the prospect of permanent military rule in the middle of a budgetary hearing.

“I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,” he said.

Just hours later, Trump followed suit and threatened anyone protesting this Saturday’s military parade in Washington D.C. to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary.

"People that want to protest will be met with big force," he said. "This is people that hate our country. They will be met with heavy force."

And just like that, in one day, the president and the defense secretary separately announced a policy of deploying the military to crush legitimate protests.