Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has revealed that the outgoing Biden administration had targeted him with a last-minute IRS audit that was obviously politically motivated.
Hegseth was one of several of President Donald Trump’s most hated nominees, with Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media viciously targeting him with smears and outright lies. Apparently, the attempts to harm his reputation weren’t enough — as the Biden administration decided to continue their weaponization of the federal government against their political opponents with a last-minute IRS audit of the incoming defense secretary.
In an X post on February 17, Hegseth shared a picture of a letter that he had received in the mail from the IRS. The document was sent to inform him that he was being audited and supposedly owed the IRS a balance of $33,558.16.
“Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an ‘audit’ of the incoming SecDef. Total sham,” Hegseth wrote. “The party of ‘norms’ and ‘decency’ strikes again. 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
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tasked with running Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), responded to Hegseth’s tweet, writing: “They love the low blows.”
They love the low blows
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025
This news comes as the IRS has become DOGE’s latest target for investigating potential waste, fraud, and abuse.
“DOGE is seeking help from the public! Please DM this account with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Internal Revenue Service,” the official X account for the DOGE team tasked with evaluating the IRS posted.
DOGE is seeking help from the public! Please DM this account with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Internal Revenue Service.
— DOGE IRS (@DOGE_IRS) February 17, 2025
It is unsurprising that the IRS was used as a weapon by the Biden administration, as former President Joe Biden was in the White House as vice president under former President Barack Obama, who infamously used the IRS to target conservative groups for political reasons. Obama’s IRS specifically targeted groups that referred to themselves as “Tea Party” or “Patriots,” while also targeting any group stating that they wanted to “make America a better place to live.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats are already desperately trying to deflect in response to Hegseth’s revelation, with one anonymous former Biden administration official telling Politico that the defense secretary’s announcement was a “vain attempt to distract from how the richest man in the world is rifling through Americans’ personal finances and Social Security information.”
