Hegseth Puts on a Clinic After Tabloid Outlet TMZ Asks First-Ever Questions at Pentagon Briefing

White House press briefings are typically made up of a mixture of legacy media and new-media outlets, who are there to ask questions on the important issues of the day, and who, in theory, typically have a baseline of knowledge regarding the subjects on which they plan to make inquiries.

Shortly before Donald Trump took office in 2025, the incoming administration announced an expansion of the types of media outlets that would have access, and shared that they would include more independent journalists, political influencers, and podcasters in the mix, with the understanding that they could better reach certain audiences in ways that traditional outlets struggled to do.

"So we will look to effectively communicate his message through all mediums so that all Americans are hearing the facts from the White House directly, not through the lens of the ever-biased anti-Trump legacy media," Karoline Leavitt noted at the time.

To prove the point, on Friday, the Pentagon held a briefing to provide updates on Operation Epic Fury, and among the outlets assembled was TMZ, which is owned by Fox Corporation.

For the 20 or so years of its existence, TMZ (which stands for Thirty Mile Zone) has primarily been a tabloidish-style LA-based outlet, mainly reporting on entertainment figures like musicians, actors, other Hollywood types, etc., and the goings on in their lives. But they've recently set up shop in Washington, D.C. to cover the political scene, which has put politicos and other media organizations on notice that business as usual on Capitol Hill is about to change.

SecWar Pete Hegseth was aware of their presence and took two questions from them. The first one, as Hegseth pointed out, was a "very TMZ question" in the manner that it was asked:

TMZ's Jacob Wasserman: "I’ve heard you talk a lot about bombing people in places. And when you give these orders to carry out this extreme level of violence, what’s going through your mind and your body? Do you have, like, an adrenaline rush? Are you scared? Do you feel like you’re on a power trip? Just walk us through and paint us a picture of what it feels like mentally and physically."

Hegseth knocked the answer out of the park:

It’s a very TMZ question. My only thought process is to ensure that our war fighters have everything they need to be successful, defeat and destroy the enemy. And they come home. I want them to feel empowered to have every authority they need within our rules and within our law to bring maximum violence to the enemy. Because war is violent. War requires doing difficult things. But I want our people to feel empowered, so it’s our guys that come home and their guys that do not.

Watch:

WATCH: @TMZ’s first question at a Pentagon briefing...@jacob_wass: “I’ve heard you talk a lot about bombing people in places. And when you give these orders to carry out this extreme level of violence, what’s going through your mind and your body? Do you have, like, an… pic.twitter.com/94IHsMHP1D
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 24, 2026

Wasserman's TMZ D.C. colleague, Charlie Cotton, also had a question for Hegseth related to whether he'd be open to changing the name of the Department of War to the Department of Peace, considering peace is what pretty much everyone wants. Hegseth gave another great answer:

“Well, that’s the pursuit,” Hegseth answered. “It’s a great question, actually. You go from Defense to War because you want to be proactive about peace through strength. And, really –– I gave a speech in front of generals about what the ethos of the War Department is all about because I wanted to go through every echelon of this department.”
He added that he once made a video about the Defense Department being “the one institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize” because “we are the guarantor of the safety and security of –– not just of our country, but a lot of people in this world.”

"When you fight a war the right way, the idea is on the other side, you bring about peace. That is what we'd like to see the most," Hegseth also stated.

Watch:

REPORTER: "You changed the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Would you consider changing the name again to the Department of Peace?"

SEC. HEGSETH: "It's a great question, actually. You go from defense to war because you want to be proactive about peace through… pic.twitter.com/ZKVW8OYVTi
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 24, 2026

Opinions on social media and in D.C. on the arrival of TMZ have been decidedly mixed, with some arguing that the more established media outlets that have put in the time on the Hill are more deserving of the opportunities to ask questions of political figures.

But the fact remains that TMZ will be a force with which to be reckoned. And those same public figures might want to make adjustments in their PR strategies to accommodate the outlet's unorthodox approach in the pursuit of answers from the people in power because, again, they'll be reaching audiences who otherwise may not pay attention to traditional news sources. Clearly, Hegseth understands this.

These public figures also better hope they don't have a lot of skeletons in their closets, because if they do, TMZ will figure out how to find them.

Related to that, as RedState reported Thursday, the arrival of TMZ may have already inspired other outlets to get ahead of them, as evidenced by the report from news outlet NOTUS about the 2023 Ethics Committee investigation into longtime Democrat Rep. Alma Adams (NC-12) regarding allegations of an "inappropriate relationship" with a female staffer.

So, regardless of what one may think about their journalistic credibility, it might be that their presence prompts other MSM outlets to finally embrace or return to the type of shoe-leather reporting most Americans are hungry for, the type that holds the powerful to account regardless of political affiliation.

Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.

Help us report on Trump and Hegseth's successes as they make our military great again. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.