It was about a month ago when an entertainer named Kid Rock, who had one Top 10 hit nearly a quarter century ago, shared videos via social media of Apache helicopters doing a flyby at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. The clips showed the entertainer, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, saluting and applauding the troops.
The unfortunate stunt obviously wasn’t an appropriate use of military resources, and the Army quickly did what everyone expected it to do: It suspended the crew members and temporarily barred them from flight duties pending a review of the incident.
Even Donald Trump conceded that the helicopter pilots “probably shouldn’t have been doing it” since “you’re not supposed to be playing games.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, however, came to a very different conclusion about the value of playing games, reversed the crew members’ suspension and abruptly closed the Army’s investigation. The New York Times reported that the moves represented “a remarkable intervention from the highest level of the Pentagon,” adding that the decree “was another indication of his contempt for legal guardrails in the military.”
Common sense might have suggested Hegseth would exercise at least some greater caution going forward. In the Pentagon chief’s office, however, common sense is apparently in short supply. The Associated Press reported:
Kid Rock and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both flew in Army Apache attack helicopters at a base in Virginia on Monday, weeks after military pilots drew scrutiny for hovering near the entertainer’s Tennessee home.
On social media Monday night, Hegseth posted photos of himself and Kid Rock at the base. … Drop Site News was first to report Monday’s flights in Virginia.
For good measure, the former Fox News host also posted a photo of the entertainer speaking to a group of service members in the Pentagon press briefing room.
The AP’s report added that an Army Apache helicopter costs about $7,000 per hour to fly, which naturally led to a fresh round of questions about wasting public resources for, to borrow the president’s phrasing, “playing games.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, for example, asked via social media, “Why are taxpayers paying to fly Kid Rock around on $100 million helicopters?” Another Democrat, Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, who’s also a former Army Ranger, similarly asked, “Why is Pete Hegseth spending your taxpayer dollars to give Kid Rock ‘joy rides’ on Apache helicopters?”
These need not be rhetorical questions.
At a press briefing last week, the beleaguered defense secretary was asked whether he feels like he’s “on a power trip.” Hegseth dismissed the line of inquiry, though with the Kid Rock incidents in mind, concerns along these lines are likely to linger.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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