U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration attend a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 29, 2026.
President Donald Trump and his top Pentagon official, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, have repeatedly aroused controversy for their election-related activities. From Trump's transparent attempts to rig the 2026 midterms to Hegseth taking a break from prosecuting two wars to appear in Iowa for a rumored 2028 presidential campaign, the two men have been accused of engaging in unprofessional and even illegal ways for political gain.
Now a former Pentagon official is slamming the Trump administration for applying a double standard in terms of Hegseth's Iowa stumping.
"When I was a DOD employee, I put a disclaimer out on everything I said or wrote, and never used USG resources," Tom Nichols, retired professor from the U.S. Naval War College, posted on X on Tuesday. "Trumpers every time would call the Navy and demand I be fired for political activity anyway."
This is not the first time Nichols, who writes for The Atlantic, has put Trump on blast. Earlier in August, he accused the media of sane-washing Trump by not covering his ramblings as evidence of cognitive decline, which Nichols believes them to be.
“Many Americans—and much of the rest of the world—have become inured to Donald Trump’s strange rants,” The Atlantic's Tom Nichols wrote. “When he shouts about sharks, when he drones on about his brilliant uncle, when he casually ponders violating the Constitution, his supporters try to dress his statements up as some kind of strategy: He’s not lost touch with reality, you see. He’s doing the weave, or he’s owning the libs. He’s fighting the fake news and flooding the zone. He knows what he’s doing.”
He continued, “These excuses have never really held much water. But his rant yesterday about the Reflecting Pool (speaking of things that don’t hold water) was a warning that the president has encased himself in the hard amber of irrationality that inevitably surrounds authoritarian leaders. He has become detached from reality—and that detachment is extremely dangerous.”
He also slammed Trump's speech for America's 250th anniversary as "trashy."
“I mean, it was trashy,” Nichols wrote. “The whole business was trashy. And I know that sounds — oh, that's snooty and elitist. But no, it was just trashy. And his speech was small. That's a thing. That's what I wrote about last night. He took this thing that could have been grandiose.”
The Pentagon and the White House have not yet responded to Nichols’ scathing criticisms.
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, the scrutiny over administration ethics is intensifying. Critics argue that these actions damage democratic norms, while supporters maintain that both Trump and Hegseth are simply exercising their political rights.
