Donald Trump’s administration has no plans to stop browbeating its critics with incorrect and sacrilegious invocation of biblical teachings. On Thursday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a lengthy diatribe barely disguised as a sermon in which he quoted fake scripture from the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, and later berated the press on biblical grounds during a press briefing, comparing the president to Jesus.
Hegseth, who for weeks now has been invoking Christian scripture to justify the administration’s disastrous war against Iran, hosted his regular worship service and sermon at the Pentagon on Wednesday. During his speech, he quoted a violent monologue delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character Jules Winnfield, in the Oscar-winning Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, before he kills someone. The speech loosely quotes Ezekiel 25:17, cutting out the preceding verses from Ezekiel 25 and replacing them with an original monologue written for the film.
Hegseth presented the famous quote as a prayer, claiming it had been recited by members of the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) team that recovered a downed pilot from Iran earlier this month.
“They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,” he said, inviting the audience to pray with him.
“The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. 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,” he recited. “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 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee, and amen.”
It is virtually word-for-word the monologue delivered by Jackson in Pulp Fiction, which appears three times in the film and is supposed to quite literally chart the path of the tyrannical men of the film — the violent Jules among them — coming to terms with their own nihilism and violence and attempting to find redemption.
It doesn’t seem like Hegseth knew that he was quoting a film, and if he did he simply avoided acknowledging the famous film scene for his audience. It also wasn’t the only time this week that the defense secretary used a loose reading of scripture to propagandize for the war.
During a press conference on Thursday, Hegseth compared members of the Pentagon press corps to the Pharisees, a Jewish social movement in the era of the Second Temple that would eventually give rise to Rabbinic Judaism. In the biblical New Testament, the Pharisees clash with Jesus of Nazareth after they witness him forgive the sins of a paralyzed man, accusing him of blasphemy for usurping God’s sole authority to absolve. Jesus then proves his connection to God by healing the man of his paralysis. Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees were often used as a biblical vehicle to explain his departures from adherence to traditional Jewish religious law and customs.
“I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,” Hegseth complained. He went on to describe the Sunday sermon given at his church in which the minister discussed the Pharisees.
“You see, the Pharisees, the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time … even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” he went on. “I sat there in church and I thought, ‘Our press are just like these Pharisees, not all of you, but the legacy, Trump-hating press.”
“Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors. The Pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation, only looking for the negative. The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn. I would ask you to open your eyes to the goodness, the historic success of our troops, the courage of this president, and this historic moment for a deal that could end the Iranian nuclear threat, the incredible battlefield victory laid before your eyes.”
In this scenario, Trump and his administration presumably represent Jesus, and the press represent … the allegedly nitpicky Jews who called out what they considered a form of blasphemy? Hegseth didn’t dwell too long on the finer points of the analogy, likely because it’s still a sore spot given that Trump was widely condemned this week for comparing himself to Jesus Christ in a Truth Social post.
Hegseth’s comments generated even more attention in light of the administration’s ongoing feud with Pope Leo XIV, who has condemned the war in Iran and directly sparred with Trump over his threats to commit crimes against humanity if Iran doesn’t surrender to him.
Leo seems to still be paying close attention to the statements being put out by the administration in defense of the war. Shortly after Hegseth’s press conference, Leo wrote on social media: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
