Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth drew ridicule for a disastrous typo on his namecard during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
Hegseth’s placard labeled his role in the administration as the “SSecretary of War” at the meeting, where he doubled down on his department’s deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean and vowed to put “narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean.”
The typo was immediately mocked by critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who hinted at its disturbing similarity to the SS, the Nazi Germany paramilitary organization responsible for the genocide of roughly six million Jews during the Holocaust.
“What does the ‘SS’ stand for? Interesting!” Newsom wrote.
Journalist Nick Monroe wrote on X, “Somebody is SO FIRED for the SSecretary typo.”
“How does no one who set up the meeting for the cabinet of the US catch the double ‘S’ on SSecretary Kegseth’s name card?“ one X user wrote. ”This is the most [powerful] group of people, and they can’t even spell that s–t right? JFC that’s wild.”
Another chimed in, “An SS reference or a warning?”
A third wrote, “’SS’ is kind of fitting tbh, they too were hyper concerned with clean shaven soldiers that were micromanaged and they put a lot of stock in the asthetics [sic].”
“Ssecretary Hegseth commits war crimes and his staff commits font fascism,” wrote another user.
Others joked that the typo referred to Hegseth’s alleged drinking habits.
“‘SSECRETARY OF WAR,’” Political commentator Keith Olbermann wrote on X. “The extra ‘S’ is for SCOTCH!”
“It’s because he stutters when he’s drunk,” wrote X user Eric McClung.
The Pentagon chief faced allegations of heavy drinking during his confirmation battle, including claims that he drank at work events he oversaw for various veterans’ advocacy groups, according to The New Yorker. Several former Fox colleagues also recounted his alleged drinking habits to NBC News.
The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Hegseth, 45, has been in hot water since he was accused of approving a double airstrike against a suspected Venezuelan drug boat in international waters.
The Washington Post reported that Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” after two people were seen hanging onto the boat.
The attack has led to accusations of Hegseth approving a war crime—purposely targeting the survivors of an initial attack who did not present an immediate threat.
Hegseth deflected responsibility of the decision to Admiral Frank Mitchell Bradley, despite saying during the Cabinet meeting that he “watched that first strike live.” He continued, saying he “didn’t stick around” to see the second strike because he was too busy and had “moved on to his next meeting.”
Hegseth said they had “only just begun” their campaign on alleged narcoterrorists, saying that they’ve been “poisoning the American people.”
“We’re stopping the drugs, we’re striking the boats, we’re defeating narcoterrorists,” Hegseth said. “We’ve had a bit of a pause because it’s been hard to find boats to strike right now.”
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