Trump’s top aide commits 'embarrassing' Biblical blunder

President Donald Trump’s top Pentagon official just quoted the 1994 Quentin Tarantino movie “Pulp Fiction” as if he was reciting from the Bible.

“The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a speech, referencing a fictional Biblical passage (Ezekiel 25:17) recited by a Samuel L. Jackson character before he performs a hit. “Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy One when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.”

Journalist Mario Nafwal mocked Hegseth’s comments on X, noting that “here’s the problem: it’s not actually from the Bible, but from Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. He even tweaked the ending to reference a military rescue unit. Who do you think pulled it off better? Hegseth or Samuel L. Jackson?"

Similarly journalist Ed Krassenstein observed that “wow this is embarrassing!” while conservative Christian Steven Latham wrote “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just quoted a fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction during a Pentagon prayer session ... This is the kind of awkward moment that gives ammunition to critics, even if the underlying message about protecting American troops is solid. You don’t need Hollywood scripts to honor service members — stick to the real thing.”

Hegseth has previously been criticized for being explicitly religious in his military proclamations, with former aide to President George W. Bush (a fellow Republican) Steve Schmidt denouncing it as “religious nuttery.”

“I want this religious extremism, I want this religious nuttery, I want this religious nationalism, I want this evil buried under a concrete f—— sarcophagus,” Schmidt said earlier this month.

Ironically, despite Hegseth’s frequent Christian proclamations, one of the world’s most influential Christian leaders denounces his war efforts. Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost, who last year was anointed Pope Leo XIV — the first American pope ever — has repeatedly denounced the Venezuela and Iran wars being waged by Trump and Hegseth.

"Hegseth is expressing an extreme version of Christian supremacy, where America, a Christian nation, is entitled, and in fact probably, in his mind, required by God, to smite America's enemies — or to smite the enemies of Christianity, even,” religious studies scholar Sarah Posner told The New Republic’s Greg Sargent when explaining Pope Leo XIV’s stances. “When we talk about Christian nationalism, this is exactly what we're talking about."