Pete Hegseth's Staff Broke Dwight Eisenhower's Globe in Botched Move to Meet His Demands, Sources Claim: 'An Apparent Lack of Patience'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn't feel like waiting for trained professionals to move Dwight Eisenhower's globe into his office, so he sent his staff to move it. They botched the operation, and now there's a giant hole in Antarctica on the sphere.

A new report detailed how Hegseth's impatience led to the destruction of an American artifact, seemingly leading to a loss of respect within the Pentagon.

On October 22, The Washington Post reported on the destruction caused by Hegseth's vanity. The 46-year-old Defense Secretary fancied moving one of former general and American President Eisenhower's globes, housed in the Pentagon for nearly a century, into his own office.

Normally, such an operation is undertaken by trained curators, but Hegseth, out of what one source called "an apparent lack of patience," figured his staffers could handle the job. It turns out, they could not.

The staffers reportedly lost control of the 30-inch globe and dropped it, causing the globe to crash onto its base. The base then impaled the globe straight through the south pole, creating a hole several inches wide. Ultimately, the globe was not relocated to Hegseth's office.

The move should have been coordinated between the Army office in possession of the globe and the U.S. Army Center of Military History. However, at the time of the attempted move, which was February 3, 2026, the history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown.

Hegseth's botched attempt to coordinate the move himself quickly became the subject of gossip and jokes within the Pentagon, according to the Washington Post report.

“Hegseth wants an Eisenhower totem to be like Ike, brilliant in war and peace,” retired brigadier general Ty Seidule told the paper. "Hegseth is no Ike. The globe won’t give him Ike’s attributes of humility, intellect and judgment.”

The globe incident follows a pattern of Hegseth attempting to demand respect through aesthetics but failing to earn it through action.

One of Hegseth's first acts was declaring that the Department of Defense would now be called the "Department of War." The first war undertaken with Hegseth in charge is the war in Iran, a quagmire that has reportedly depleted American munitions and sent gas prices skyrocketing.

Hegseth has also insisted upon grooming standards and testosterone level minimums in addition to using slurs to declare which groups he deems no longer welcome in the U.S. military.

The incident also highlights how Hegseth's brash leadership has lost him respect in the Pentagon.

In recent months, multiple reports have come out outlining how senior staff in the Defense Department are preparing to spill a bevy of embarrassing stories about Hegseth should Democrats take control of Congress after the 2026 midterms.

The anonymous sources cite his chaotic, paranoid leadership as the reason they want him gone, and anticipate that an impeachment effort against Hegseth will be sufficiently embarrassing enough for Trump to fire the embattled secretary.