Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it.

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It was early this year when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted to move the world. A replica of it, anyway.

Two floor globes said to be used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II are housed in the Pentagon, where subsequent generations of Army leaders became custodians of the artifacts, according to people familiar with their lineage and an accompanying plaque dating them to the 1930s.

The historical significance was attractive to Hegseth, these people said, and his staff requested that the secretary’s office become the new home to one of the 30-inch globes.

Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators. Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide.

Pentagon officials denied The Washington Post’s request for a photo of the globe or to examine the artifact in person, but The Post separately obtained images of the damage.

The Army, in an email to The Post, acknowledged that the globe was damaged and said it occurred during an “attempted move” Feb. 3. Aside from the hole, “the spherical portion of the globe was detached from the metal mounting that allows it to rotate,” spokesman Christopher Surridge said in response to questions. Ultimately, the damaged relic was not relocated, he said.

Asked where the movers came from, Surridge referred The Post to Hegseth’s office. Spokespeople for the defence secretary declined to address questions about the incident.

After publication Thursday, a Defence Department official provided The Post with a brief, unattributed statement acknowledging the mishap. “Accidents happen,” it says, “we are grateful no one was harmed, and the globe is being repaired.” The statement does not say how much the repairs are expected to cost and when they would be complete.

The Army office in possession of the globe had expected to consult with experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History on how to ensure its safe transport and properly document its relocation to Hegseth’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a previously undisclosed incident that is viewed as an embarrassment within the Defence Department.

The history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown stemming from a dispute in Congress over aspects of the Trump administration’s immigration policy. When the experts could not be reached, Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves, these people said.

It is unclear why Hegseth’s team did not wait for experienced help to move the artifact during the partial government shutdown, which ended the same day the globe was damaged. An “apparent lack of patience,” said one person familiar with the situation, appeared to be a factor.

The episode became instant fodder for gossip and jokes inside the Pentagon, with some decrying the apparent brashness and affinity for World War II nostalgia that they characterized as common themes throughout Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary.

Hegseth, a former National Guard officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, uses the title “secretary of war.” He carried out Trump’s executive order last year to rebrand the Defense Department as the War Department, reverting to the name that was used from 1789 to 1947. Congress has not authorized either name change.

Eisenhower served as a five-star general during the war and is credited with coordinating the defeat of Nazi Germany through major operations, including the D-Day landings in France in 1944. After retiring, he went on to become president from 1953 to 1961, leading the United States through the early days of the Cold War.

Since the agency became the Department of Defence under President Harry S. Truman, “we haven’t won a major war since,” Hegseth said last year.

Ty Seidule, a retired brigadier general who taught history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, lamented news that the globe had been damaged.

“Hegseth wants an Eisenhower totem to be like Ike, brilliant in war and peace,” Seidule said. He has criticized the defence secretary previously for overriding a policy change that removed Confederate names and symbology from several military bases located in the southern U.S., an effort Seidule helped lead.

“Hegseth is no Ike. The globe won’t give him Ike’s attributes of humility, intellect and judgment,” Seidule said.

It is unclear whether Hegseth personally ordered the globe’s relocation, or if another senior official in his office may have done so. It also is unclear whether Hegseth’s aides were prepared with the appropriate materials to move the artifact.

Another globe similar in design and linked to Eisenhower was transferred in recent years from a military history storage site in Alabama to a nearby Army installation. That globe was wrapped in protective covering and secured in a crate before it was moved.

“Since the globe is considered priceless, we knew its value was much greater than financial, and that our team was heavily relied upon for a safe delivery,” the moving company Craters and Freighters wrote in a 2022 account published online.

A sign on display with the globe that was damaged said that it is one of two “Eisenhower globes” that the Army possesses within the Pentagon, according to the photographs obtained by The Post.

“According to popular theory, the one in this room was first used by Dwight D. Eisenhower while serving on the General Staff as Chief of the War Plans Division from February to March 1942 and Operations Division from March to June 1942,” the sign states. “It is conjectured that this was retained by the successors to the Operations Division, known today as the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-35.”

The other globe is on display in the office of the chief of staff of the Army, the service’s top general, and has pen marks on it from both Eisenhower and Gen. Omar Bradley, another iconic senior officer during World War II, officials said.

Eisenhower had a well-known fondness for globes and is seen in numerous historical photographs posing with them.

Apart from the three globes known to the Army, he sent another to Truman after the war, which remained in the Oval Office through the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, according to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. That globe is on loan to the Truman library in Missouri.

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