Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrives for a join news conference with Poland’s Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday. (Wojtek Radwanski – AFP / Getty Images)
By Ben Zeisloft February 18, 2025 at 5:30am
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth alleged on Monday that the IRS under now-former President Joe Biden audited him as he prepared to lead the Pentagon.
Hegseth shared a picture on X of an IRS document saying the agency would be “auditing your federal income tax return.”
The agency appeared to have told Hegseth, “[Y]ou owe a balance of $33,558.16.”
Hegseth was not pleased with the audit, contending that the enforcement action was linked to his role in the administration of President Donald Trump.
“Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an ‘audit’ of the incoming SecDef. Total sham,” he wrote.
“The party of ‘norms’ and ‘decency’ strikes again,” Hegseth added. “We will never back down.”
Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an “audit” of the incoming SecDef. Total sham.
The party of “norms” and “decency” strikes again. We will never back down. pic.twitter.com/coW1UpFPrD
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) February 17, 2025
Other allies of Trump agreed with his assessment.
“They love the low blows,” Elon Musk reacted.
Do you approve of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s work thus far?
“Nothing says ‘democracy’ like the Biden IRS going after political opponents,” the popular account Clown World added. “Totally not a weaponized government agency.”
“Wow. Weaponized government,” Dean Cain said. “Anti-American.”
“Unreal. No bottom to the Biden Admin’s weaponization,” Mike Benz wrote.
Unreal. No bottom to the Biden Admin’s weaponization. https://t.co/wuJBuc0V6p
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 17, 2025
Hegseth is not wrong to assume that the Biden administration was targeting him because of his political affiliation.
Over the past four years, such targeted law enforcement and persecution of Christians, conservatives, and Trump supporters flourished on several fronts, from the Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutions to the locking away of pro-life grandmothers in federal prison.
The IRS has its own specific history of political weaponization.
Under former President Barack Obama, IRS officials in Washington, D.C., intervened to examine the tax-exempt status of conservative groups, according to a 2013 report from The Washington Post.
The agency’s headquarters asked the conservative organizations about their donors and certain components of their operations.
Other IRS offices meanwhile launched probes with groups linked to the Tea Party movement.
Obama claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the IRS actions and vowed that “if in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on, and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous.”
He insisted that “they have to be held fully accountable.”
But more than a decade later, that accountability appears never to have happened.
The Democrats have continually wielded government weaponization and prosecuted political opponents.
No one experienced this more directly than Trump himself, and members of his orbit, including Hegseth, are still facing the same pressures even after the Democrats have left power.
The new administration has its work cut out for it, rooting out the subversive influences in the deep state — including those who have the capacity to reach into conservative Americans’ wallets and steal the fruits of their labors.
Ben Zeisloft is the editor of The Republic Sentinel, a conservative news outlet owned and operated by Christians. He is a former staff reporter for The Daily Wire and has written for The Spectator, Campus Reform, and other conservative news outlets. Ben graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with concentrations in business economics and marketing.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
