The Washington Post obtained documents showing that the Pentagon searched service members' online comments after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, looking at the comments of more than 300 service members, DOD employees, and contractors to see if they posted anything offensive or insulting about Kirk.

The Daily Mail, in reporting on the leak, said that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was conducting a "witch hunt" into his critics, but it seems more like doing due diligence to make sure our military doesn't have a bunch of scumbags in it or working for it.

Hegseth and Trump want to know that their soldiers and other employees aren't the type who would celebrate someone's murder just because that person has different political beliefs than they do.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Investigations and reprimands

They found some of what they were looking for, too.

As of the end of September, the DOD was investigating 128 service members in relation to Kirk's death.

Out of that number, 26 had been officially reprimanded, an action that could affect their future military careers.

It has been difficult for military higher-ups to stomach Hegseth, who was only ever a junior officer before becoming Secretary of War.

A politicization or reinstituting standards?

During a recent summit, Hegseth, who keeps himself in good physical condition, scolded "fat generals" and decreed that everyone would now have to pass weight requirements and physical fitness testing twice a year.

The day after the summit, several DOD employees were fired, ostensibly for having a poor reaction to the speech.

One ex-defense staffer said that he thought the power dynamics and Hegseth's approach were absurd.

"I thought it was a highly inappropriate politicization of the US military, which both Trump and Hegseth love to do," he said.

According to Hegseth and the department, it's those making nasty comments about Kirk's assassination who are politicizing things inappropriately by engaging in "improper partisan behavior."

"It's a violation of the oath, it's conduct unbecoming, it's a betrayal of the Americans they've sworn to protect & dangerously incompatible with military service," spokesman Sean Parnell wrote last month on social media.