{"id":229452,"date":"2026-01-06T00:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/229452\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T00:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:49:09","slug":"pete-hegseth-cuts-pension-of-democrat-who-criticised-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/229452\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth cuts pension of Democrat who criticised military"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Hegseth<\/a>, the US secretary of defence, has cut the pension and demoted the rank of a Democrat who appeared to criticise the military\u2019s actions under his leadership.<\/p>\n

Mark Kelly, a US senator for Arizona and a retired Navy captain, appeared in a video alongside several other Democrats with military backgrounds, urging troops to refuse \u201cillegal orders\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur laws are clear,\u201d Mr Kelly said in the video published on Nov 18. \u201cYou can refuse illegal orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The footage was circulated amid intense questioning over the legality of US military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, part of Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to oust Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n

Mr Maduro has since been captured and charged with drug offences.<\/p>\n

Mr Hegseth announced on Monday that Mr Kelly\u2019s rank would also be demoted. He accused the Arizona senator of \u201creckless misconduct\u201d and said that the video was \u201cclearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Hegseth, whose department has informally been renamed the \u201cdepartment of war<\/a>\u201d also threatened further action against Mr Kelly.<\/p>\n

In response, Mr Kelly said he would \u201cfight this with everything I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired service member that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn\u2019t like, they will come after them the same way. It\u2019s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that,\u201d Mr Kelly said in a statement on X.<\/p>\n

The censure of Mr Kelly stops short of the threat previously made<\/a> by the administration to recall him to active military duty status to prosecute him, after what the Trump administration described as seditious behaviour.<\/p>\n

Mr Hegseth said Mr Kelly has 30 days to respond and that the administrative process would conclude 15 days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain Kelly\u2019s status as a sitting United States senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,\u201d Mr Hegseth added.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly and the other Democrat politicians in the video, including Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, have defended their remarks, saying they were merely stating what US law requires of troops if they are given an unlawful order.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, has cut the pension and demoted the rank of a Democrat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[117731,72,969,176,61,60,89440,117732,117729,174,175,26574,117730],"class_list":{"0":"post-229452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-arizona-senator","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-mark-kelly","15":"tag-mr-hegseth","16":"tag-mr-kelly","17":"tag-personal-finance","18":"tag-personalfinance","19":"tag-pete-hegseth","20":"tag-reckless-misconduct"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}