Is Pete Hegseth Killing Iranians to Get Rich? |
Is Pete Hegseth Killing Iranians to Get Rich?
The defense secretary’s broker allegedly sought a stake in major defense companies in the weeks before the bombing began—just the latest example of potential insider trading on the war.
The Iran war is shaping up to be history’s first global conflict fought inside the stock market.At 7:27 a.m. Monday, before the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “Great progress has been made” in negotiations with “A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran.” There’s no evidence any of this was true. Trump’s aim was not to inform the public about the war’s progress but rather to halt the previous Friday’s stock market drop. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was weighing an end to the war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz. That also stemmed stock market losses. But these are sure to resume when shareholders think through what an extended shutdown of that waterway would mean for the global economy.
Now we have a bombshell report from the Financial Times that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to invest for him millions in major defense companies in the weeks before the war started—presumably so Hegseth could profit financially from the imminent shedding of American soldiers’ blood. This is something that in ordinary times (remember those?) would have got Hegseth fired within 24 hours. In the cesspool that is Trump’s second term, that’s going to take longer, but my guess is Hegseth is toast.
Of course, Hegseth denies it. Shortly after the FT story was posted Monday night, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on X: “This allegation is entirely false and fabricated. Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about any such investment. This is yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public. We demand an immediate retraction. Secretary Hegseth and the Department of........