In a very funny post on X (formerly Twitter), Trump Administration Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth torched Hillary Clinton in a post seen millions of times, exposing her for her two-faced stance on American relations with the Russian Federation, one that appears based on politics at the time rather than principle.
The spat began with an order from Hegseth in which he allegedly ordered U.S. Cyber Command to “stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.” The order does not apply to the National Security Agency (NSA), and appeared meant to lessen tensions with the Russians as Trump tries to wind down the Russo-Ukraine War.
That order, in turn, led to the Gizmodo outlet writing an article with a headline that read, “Trump’s Defense Secretary Hegseth Orders Cyber Command to ‘Stand Down’ on All Russia Operations.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted the article on X and captioned it by saying, “Wouldn’t want to hurt Putin’s feelings.”
In response, Hegseth commented on Clinton’s post and, without even posting a caption, left a photo of Clinton in which she smiled while standing next to Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov in March 2009 as she and he held the infamous “reset” button meant to symbolize America and Russia resetting their relations in a more positive direction. Here that is:
Wouldn’t want to hurt Putin’s feelings. https://t.co/rK69K8RCBD
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 2, 2025
People who saw the post thought it was hilarious. Rasmussen Reports, for example, posted a screenshot of the tweet from Hillary and Hegseth’s reply and captioned it, “Call an ambulance …” Similarly, a commenter on Hegseth’s post said, “Dear Secretary Hegseth, Thank you for putting crooked cankled hillary in her place. The clintons are evil and corrupt. Signed, CC Plus 100 million Americans”
Another commenter on Hegseth’s post said, “Hillary would be smart to lay low … but commone sense isn’t part of her forte. Kinda like Zelenskyy in that respect … too much ego and zero common sense.” Another attacked the Clinton family generally, saying, “The Clintons are the most corrupt family in the history of the United States.”
President Trump, for his part, has indicated that he thinks America needs to attempt to reach a better relationship with Russia. In one post on Truth Social, for example, he commented on his view that America should be thinking about defending itself, not Ukraine, saying, “We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country – So that we don’t end up like Europe!”
In another post, he slammed Zelensky for saying that peace is “far away,” writing, “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”