Hegseth Stops Investigation of Apache Pilots Who Conducted Unscheduled Flybys Over Kid Rock's House During No Kings Protests

Is the U.S. military intended to be used to protect American citizens and secure our national interests—or is it available as an extremely expensive way to provide free publicity for politically connected celebrities? The Trump administration is treating it as the latter, in the case of a helicopter flyby used to create social media content for a pro-Trump, has-been celebrity.

The Washington Post reports:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday nullified an Army investigation into the unauthorized helicopter flybys of musician Kid Rock’s estate and anti-Trump protests in Tennessee over the weekend, announcing the move just hours after military officials opened their disciplinary review of the soldiers involved.

“No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, Patriots,” Hegseth wrote on social media.

Kid Rock, whose legal name is Robert Ritchie, is an enthusiastic, longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, and he is widely admired among the president’s political base. Hegseth’s swift intervention in the case raised immediate questions about whether the military can hold its own accountable for actions that Hegseth may deem politically favorable. …

Earlier Tuesday, Army officials had said the Apache pilots were suspended while officials investigated the incident.

“The Army takes any allegations of unauthorized or unsafe flight operations very seriously and is committed to enforcing standards and holding personnel accountable,” it said in a statement.

This is another example of Pete Hegseth turning the U.S. military into a political instrument by sabotaging its internal institutions and overruling the decisions of independent and nonpartisan boards.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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