Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff badly damaged former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s globe while moving it into his office.
The globe, which is now housed in the Pentagon, dates back to the 1930s and was reportedly used by Eisenhower during World War II, making it an extremely delicate artifact that needed to be handled with care. But a task that should have been delegated to archivists or museum professionals was instead handled by Hegseth’s own staff, who dropped the globe when they tried to move it to the defense secretary’s office early this year, The Washington Post reported.
That resulted in a gash “several inches wide” in the shell near Antarctica.
An Army spokesperson admitted to the damage, saying the globe was “detached from the metal mounting that allows it to rotate.”
Hegseth’s office did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
One anonymous source attributed the gaffe to an “apparent lack of patience.” The mistake has become a source of humor both inside and outside the Pentagon, as the event is a perfect microcosm for the hypermasculine move-fast-break-things mentality that Hegseth has brought to the Defense Department—or the “War Department,” as he insists on calling it.
“Kind of a perfect metaphor for Hegseth’s entire tenure at DOD. Stupid, impulsive, driven by vanity and the result is destruction,” liberal podcaster Tommy Vietor wrote online.
“Hegseth wants an Eisenhower totem to be like Ike, brilliant in war and peace,” retired brigadier general and former West Point military history professor Ty Seidule told the Post. “Hegseth is no Ike. The globe won’t give him Ike’s attributes of humility, intellect and judgment.”
