An angular eagle behind the defense secretary departed from the Pentagon’s established branding. Critics saw echoes of the Third Reich.
A reimagined “Department of War” logo displayed behind Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a recent speech drew immediate comparisons to Third Reich iconography.
Speaking to Air Force Academy cadets on Saturday, Hegseth stood in front of a monochrome logo for his agency that differs from the designs in the Defense Department’s official branding guide. The backdrop features a stylized eagle that critics compared to the straight-edged Reichsadler used by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.



I’m Irish and I’ve hated the American war machine my whole life.
I was comparing Bush to Hitler twenty years ago and calling your soldiers Nazis ever since.
Sad to see it come this far, and with such popularity.
The world is truly broken and there are dark, dark times on the horizon.
The original German Nazis were (partially) inspired by fascist (and racist and anti-semetic) movements in the USA.
They even visited America in the mid 1930s to gather some ideas.