On Monday morning, Hegseth posted a lengthy prepared statement on X under his fake title, Secretary of War, to claim Kelly and five other members of Congress posting a video stating the truth—backed by military laws and regulations—was "seditious."
The title Secretary of War has not existed in the United States since Congress—the only federal body authorized to add or change cabinet level departments—changed the Department of War to the Department of Defense in 1949 as an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947.
Changing the Department of Defense (DoD) officially to the Department of War could cost up to $2 billion. Some of the costly changes have already been made, despite the name being unofficial and unauthorized.
Trump issued an executive order in September to change the name back in another self-serving desperate attempt to seem tough, much like his orchestrated attacks against members of Congress, state governors, mayors, and celebrities.
You can see Hegseth's post here:
@SecWar/X
But even Grok—Elon Musk's manipulated AI for his X platform—wasn't buying Hegseth's attempt to make petty revenge legitimate.
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Grok also found where Hegseth himself—a Princeton ROTC graduate who joined the Minnesota Army National Guard—made the same "seditious" statement he was condemning Kelly for.
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Senator Kelly was undeterred and unintimidated by the Trump administration's latest attack against him.
In his own X post, using a legitimate title, Senator Kelly stated:
"Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way. It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that."
"If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it. I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government."
You can see his full post here:
Reactions to both Kelly's and Hegseth's posts were markedly different.
While Kelly received widespread support...
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...Hegseth was met with pushback and mockery.
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Two high ranking Republican Senators also spoke out publicly about Hegseth's actions.
Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins—chair of the Senate Armed Forces Appropriations Committee which controls the Pentagon's budget—told the press on Monday:
"I don’t think that’s appropriate."
North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis told the Huffington Post:
"I think it has a chilling effect on speech, and I’ve got a real problem with it. And I think Hegseth overreached."
Whether the Trump administration backs down voluntarily remains to be seen.
But the action is largely performative as legal and military experts have already declared the action will fail upon any legal or military code of justice review.
