{"id":589550,"date":"2026-04-17T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589550\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:14:13","slug":"pete-hegseth-mocked-by-gavin-newsom-over-pulp-fiction-prayer-fiasco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589550\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth Mocked By Gavin Newsom Over Pulp Fiction Prayer Fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn an administration full of SNL<\/a> cold opens waiting to happen, Pete Hegseth<\/a> really outdid himself this week \u2014 and Colin Jost<\/a> wasn\u2019t even in the room.<\/p>\n

\n\tCaught quoting lines of a phony Bible passage from Pulp Fiction<\/a> as scripture Wednesday during a Pentagon ceremony, the former Fox News host has become even more of a pi\u00f1ata\u00a0to political foes than ever.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn full Donald Trump<\/a> trolling mode, California\u2019s Gavin Newsom<\/a> may have taken the prize in roasting Hegseth today as the video of the face plant started to circulate. Sure, the post the Golden State governor and likely 2028 POTUS candidate put up mixed up characters from the Quentin Tarantino<\/a> classic by portraying Hegseth as Uma Thurman rather than the Samuel L. Jackson<\/a> character that the Defense Secretary was actually quoting, but the visual was still pretty striking.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn what would have likely been a career killer for the much-mocked Hegseth in any other administration, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell put up a spirited defense of the Defense Secretary, kinda. <\/p>\n

\n\tOnline this AM, as my colleague Ted Johnson reported<\/a>, Parent wrote, \u201cSecretary Hegseth on Wednesday shared a custom prayer, referenced as the CSAR prayer, used by the brave warfighters of Sandy-1 who led the daylight rescue mission of Dude 44 Alpha out of Iran, which was obviously inspired by dialogue in\u00a0Pulp Fiction. However, both the CSAR prayer and the dialogue in\u00a0Pulp Fiction\u00a0were reflections of the verse Ezekiel 25:17, as Secretary Hegseth clearly said in his remarks at the prayer service. Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, Tarantino and Jackson haven\u2019t said anything, and maybe they never will about Hegseth\u2019s religious recital. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn the other hand, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, author Don Winslow<\/a>, tennis legend Martina Navratilova, POTUS\u2019 own niece (who has never been a fan) and Spinal Tap\u2019s Michael McKean<\/a> were all among the many who took Hegseth to town Thursday for, as The Fatal Score scribe Winslow wrote, being a \u201cclown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dear @SecWar<\/a> Pete Hegseth,<\/p>\n

YOU ARE A CLOWN.<\/p>\n

YOU ARE THE WORST SECRETARY OF DEFENSE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS NATION.<\/p>\n

A CHILD. A CLOWN. A GOOF.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Don Winslow (@donwinslow) April 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Who among us has not mistaken the holy words of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction for biblical scripture?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) April 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tGetting very Pulp Fiction specific, as only a satirical genius and former fictional POTUS can, The Diplomat\u2019s President Bill Rayburn AKA McKean quipped<\/a> \u201cshould have done Walken\u2019s watch story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOuch<\/p>\n

\n\tThen again, with the possibility that someone on Hegseth\u2019s staff is actually gaslighting him, former NBC News reporter Chuck Todd<\/a> may have nailed it and Hegseth best. The ex-Meet The Press anchor wrote that Hegseth \u201cclearly got the worst case of poser complex DC\u2019s ever seen and that\u2019s saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poor Pete Hegseth, he\u2019s clearly got the worst case of poser complex DC\u2019s ever seen and that\u2019s saying something.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) April 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIt really is \u2014 unless VP JD Vance decides to double down again on his own Pope Leo XIV<\/a> slagging to impress Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\tBTW, SNL isn\u2019t back until the first week of May, so, at the rate the Trump crowd step in it, Hegseth\u2019s fiasco will be too old to make the cold open cut.<\/p>\n