Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is reportedly considering a presidential run in 2028, slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his handling of the past two weeks of U.S. military strikes on Iran.
On Pod Save America, Shapiro called Hegseth “wildly incompetent” and compared him to an “eight-year-old playing with toy soldiers.”
Shapiro added that Hegseth and the Trump administration talk about the war in Iran “in a way that doesn’t respect the humanity in the region and certainly is disrespectful to our soldiers.”
[NOTE: Hegseth also has been criticized for allegedly flouting international law in his prosecution of the war and corresponding rhetoric, with U.S. Representative Eugene Vindman (D-VA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, asserting that Hegseth’s pledge to give “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” violates the Geneva conventions, and is part of what Vindman calls Hegseth’s “pattern of issuing illegal orders.”]
Shapiro also used the Hegseth comparison of an eight-year-old playing with toy soldiers during his appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, see below. “We’ve lost 13 American soldiers in a war the American people…has no idea why we went there in the first place.”
Bill Maher: “Our chief negotiator said they were talking to Iran up until the war started. He said their opening salvo at the negotiations, ‘We’re a couple of weeks away from having 11 [nuclear] bombs.’”
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) March 14, 2026
“If you were the president and you got that information, you would still do… pic.twitter.com/UklGQeztTR
Reactions online to Shapiro’s comments about Hegseth are mixed. While some Trump critics agree and are responding with photos of Trump playing golf during the first weekend of the war, MAGA supporters are responding with photos of Shapiro signing missiles the U.S. gave to Ukraine to fight Russia and with comments including “yeah, respect for humanity…as he signs the bombs that would kill civilians.”
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