Trump defense sec’s 'unusually large security' straining Army's 'most basic mission'

20 August

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a White House press briefing on January 30, 2025 (Joshua Sukoff/ Shutterstock.com)

The Pentagon underwent major changes when former U.S. President Joe Biden left the White House on January 20, 2025 and ex-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III went with him. Austin, now 72, was a retired U.S. Army general; 45-year-old Pete Hegseth, defense secretary under President Donald Trump, served in the military but was best known for his work as a weekend host on Fox News.

The far-right Hegseth has been mired in controversy, from the national security fears ignited by the "Signalgate" scandal to his associations with extreme Christian nationalists to allegations of severe alcohol abuse in the past. And according to the Washington Post, security for protecting Hegseth is putting a huge strain on the military.

In an article published on August 20, Post journalist Tara Copp, Alex Horton and Dan Lamothe report that Hegseth's "unusually large personal security requirements" are "straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him."

That agency is the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID).

According to Copp, Horton and Lamothe, "One CID official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity citing a fear of reprisal, characterized Hegseth's personal protective arrangement as unlike any other in the agency's recent history…. This account is based on more than a dozen interviews — including with CID staff, current and former defense officials, and others familiar with Hegseth’s activities — and a review of documents revealing the Trump Administration's apparent unwillingness to meet the Army's request for additional funding and personnel for the mission."

A CID official told that Post, "I've never seen this many security teams for one guy. Nobody has." And another CID official told the publication, "We have complete inability to achieve our most basic missions."

A key factor in the "demand for additional resources" with CID, according to the Post reporters, is "Hegseth’s large blended family — including one child with wife Jennifer Hegseth, her three children from a previous marriage plus three children from Hegseth’s second marriage."

"The Washington Post withheld several sensitive details gathered in the course of reporting this article, including the size of Hegseth’s protective details and the precise locations where they are assigned," Copp, Horton and Lamothe report. "Army CID has faced significant staffing and budgetary shortfalls for years, but new demands since Hegseth's arrival in January have put added pressure on the agency, officials said."

Read the full Washington Post article at this link (subscription required).

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