Meanwhile in even more Hegseth:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to bring six of his children on an official trip to France that began Friday is putting added strain on his personal protective detail amid heightened threats stemming from the Iran war, one current and two former employees of the agency responsible for his security said.
Hegseth, whose wife, Jennifer Hegseth, also joined the trip, is in France to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of D-Day and honor the tens of thousands of American troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
So why not make it a party? It’s such a jolly, festive occasion, right?
“I’ve never, ever seen anything like that with a whole family going,” said one former official with the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, or CID, the agency responsible for securing the defense secretary’s movements at home and abroad. Like others interviewed for this report, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
A spokesman for Hegseth said the defense secretary is covering the cost of his family’s travel but did not specify whether that includes the additional security personnel needed to protect his family.
Nor does it deal with the whole jolly outing for the whole fam aspect. D-Day was not what you’d call festive. It was welcome, it was desperately needed, but it was not festive.
A current Army official said that the increased costs stemming from Hegseth’s security needs have taken a toll on the agency and that, as a result, CID has struggled to provide adequate training for its agents and Army criminal investigations have been curtailed in some instances.
“As a taxpayer, I’m concerned about it,” the official said. “But as a professional who always has to claw for money to do just basic missions, I just look at that cost and think, how much more of X, Y and Z could we have bought if not for that?”
The Hegseths have taken their children on official trips in the past, as well, including one in October that included a stop in Hawaii. At the time, the Pentagon would not say whether the secretary reimbursed the government for the cost of having his family accompany him.
Which means he didn’t.
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