Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, is under scrutiny after reports surfaced that he sought investment ahead of U.S. military action in Iran. Political analysts slammed him on social media, Raw Story reported.
The Financial Times reported that Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock back in February, just ahead of the conflict. The broker sought a multimillion-dollar investment for the iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF.
This ETF holds a basket of assets like RTX Corp, formerly Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin, CNBC reported. These are all defense companies, and altogether, the fund manages $3.1 billion in assets.
A broker for War Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly tried to make a major investment in leading defense firms in the weeks before the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in… pic.twitter.com/F8GH38Tw1f
— AF Post (@AFpost) March 30, 2026
Usually, defense stocks go up in a wartime situation, but that is not the case here. The fund has lost 12.4% since the war started, according to LSEG data.
The Financial Times pointed out that in the end, the deal did not go through. The ETF was introduced to the market in May last year, but it was not yet available on Morgan Stanley’s platform.
As reported by CNBC, it is still not known whether Hegseth’s broker found other defense investments.
After the news surfaced, the managing editor of Occupy Democrats, Grant Stern, took to X to condemn the act, Raw Story reported. He wrote, “Pete Hegseth tried to make a LOSING insider trade on his advance knowledge of Trump’s Iran war plans, which he advised to start. This is the height of criminality and incompetence.”
Co-host of Pod Save America, Tommy Vietor, also voiced his disappointment on X. He wrote, “Truly shocking for the Secretary of Defense to trade f**king stocks and (attempt to) profit off of a war he helped start. Firing this drunk idiot is the bare minimum. @PeteHegseth should be prosecuted.”
Sean Parnell, Pentagon chief spokesperson, has dismissed this claim and the report by The Financial Times.
On X, he wrote, “This allegation is entirely false and fabricated. Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about any such investment. This is yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public.”
Four-byline alert: 🚨
“.. A broker for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar ..”@FThttps://t.co/wUArjWR0QK pic.twitter.com/dDErsGxfhq
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) March 30, 2026
He further added, “We demand an immediate retraction. Secretary Hegseth and the Department of War remain unwavering in their commitment to the highest standards of ethics and strict adherence to all applicable laws and regulations.”
As Reuters reported, BlackRock refused to make any comments regarding this, and Morgan Stanley did not respond to the outlet yet.
On the other hand, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran. According to them, this could open a new chapter in the war. It may make the situation more dangerous for U.S. troops, at least at first.
