President Donald Trump’s unprovoked and unconstitutional war against Iran has led to energy prices surging across the globe while unleashing political instability across the Middle East.

However, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the world needs to show Trump more gratitude for everything he’s done.

Speaking at a press conference, Hegseth lambasted US allies who so far have not joined Trump’s Iran war, which he launched early on a Saturday morning without any approval from the US Congress.

“The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump: ‘Thank you,’” Hegseth said. “Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building, or attempting to build, a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.”

Hegseth: “Our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump – ‘Thank you. Thank you for the courage to stop this terror stage from holding the world hostage while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb.’” pic.twitter.com/EpuPOUDd6I
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2026

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified under oath before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been “obliterated” by US-led airstrikes that were launched last year, and that there “has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability” since then.

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent also said Iran had posed “no imminent threat” when he announced his resignation this week.

Despite those acknowledgments by high-level officials, elsewhere in the press conference, Hegseth attacked the US media for reporting negative news about the Iran war.

“The media here—not all of it, but much of it—wants you to think, just 19 days into this conflict, that we’re somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire,” claimed the one-time Fox News host. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Hegseth: The media wants you to think that we’re somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hear it from me.

One of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish… pic.twitter.com/qI3RpGzmy3
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 19, 2026

Hegseth then informed viewers that as “one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians like [Presidents George W.] Bush, [Barack] Obama, and [Joe] Biden squander American credibility,” he could credibly claim that “this is not those wars” because “President Trump knows better.”

Hegseth also defended the Pentagon’s request for $200 billion in funding for the war, telling reporters, “IT takes money to kill bad guys.”

The Iran Health Ministry has estimated more than 1,200 Iranians have been killed in Israeli and US strikes since the war began in late February.

A recent analysis of opinion polls conducted by data analyst G. Elliott Morris found that the Iran war is the most unpopular military conflict launched by the US over the span of at least three decades.

“The big takeaway from these numbers is that the new war in Iran is very unpopular,” Morris explained. “Not merely negative-number-so-what unpopular, but worst-ever-support-for-war-when-it-started unpopular. With just 38% of Americans in favor, support for bombing Iran is lower than retrospective support for the war in Iraq was in 2014.”

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