Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was already scrambling to dodge one embarrassing controversy when critics argued he handed them another, delivered on a silver platter — and the online world quickly took note of the timing.
Only days after a sweeping online backlash over his failure to salute a Black service member while stepping off a plane at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Hegseth ran into fresh scrutiny, this time because of a video he shared showing a Black soldier, with critics arguing that he used the soldier as a prop to send a message to Americans who disapprove of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
Hegseth reposted a video of an unnamed soldier riding in a vehicle with the caption, “I know some people who need to hear this…” echoing the lines spoken by the soldier in the TikTok clip.
“Hey, I don’t know who needs to hear this. I see a lot of people be talking sh-t about America,” the soldier says. “Hey, if you don’t like America, go to another country, b-tch.”
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The video had originally been posted by TikTok user Gmgdray in January 2025.
Hegseth, a veteran and former Fox News host who had no prior experience running any large organization, let alone the world’s largest military, reposted the clip on Monday, March 16, as Trump’s deadly war in Iran entered its third week with no end in sight.
It appeared targeted at a majority of Americans, according to polling, who do not approve of the ongoing Iran war, a conflict that has already claimed more than 1,200 lives, including at least 13 Americans.
The renewed backlash against Hegseth followed another online uproar over the weekend when Hegseth stepped off a plane in Florida and saluted several of the white service members waiting for him, yet did not salute the single Black man among the ranks. However, it’s unclear what the protocol dictates in that scenario.
Opponents were quick to criticize the optics of Hegseth’s repost, and social media descended into a frenzy over the defense chief’s use of a video to convey a political message.
“Oh you found your token black person….whom you probably hate anyway,” wrote X user Cally Jazz. “Is that your token Black guy with your white supremacy tattoos – log off b—h,” another commenter chimed in.
Another user shared an image of Trump in a MAGA hat standing at a podium bearing the words “A WAR STILL IN SEARCH OF A MISSION” with the caption, “This isn’t the flex you think it is, Petey.”
And X user Greg Stoker commented, “Not listening to an untabbed E-4 ASVAB waiver about geopolitics and military science. Also this was from waaay before the war started. Going that badly huh? The propaganda ain’t propaganda-ing anymore.”
The “untabbed E-4 ASVAB” reference pertains to the soldier’s entry-level rank and the placement tied to educational criteria among other factors.
One of the Americans killed in a plane crash in Iraq while attempting to refuel another military aircraft mid-air was Air Force Tech Sgt. Tyler Simmons from Ohio.
His family has spoken out against Simmons’ death and the war, calling the loss “uncalled for.”
“This could have been prevented,” said Simmons’s cousin Stephan Douglas, speaking to Ohio’s WCMH TV.
“We didn’t need to be in this war. This is uncalled for – and this is what we get,” Douglas continued.
He also described it as “just the worst nightmare we could ever imagine.”
Simmons’s family said the way to end the nightmare is for Americans to register and vote.
“Families are suffering right now,” Bernice Smith, Simmons’s mother, told the TV station.
“Just to create a war because you want to create a war is not right,” she added, without naming Trump.
