Pete Hegseth Says He's Been Targeted by 'Total Sham' Audit from Last Vestiges of the Biden Admin

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed on Monday that the IRS, under the now-former President Joe Biden, audited him just as he was preparing to take charge at the Pentagon.

Hegseth posted an image on X of an IRS notice stating the agency was "auditing your federal income tax return."

The document also reportedly informed him, "[Y]ou owe a balance of $33,558.16."

Unhappy with the situation, Hegseth argued that the audit was politically motivated and tied to his involvement in President Donald Trump’s administration.

"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," he added. "We will never back down."

Several Trump allies echoed his concerns.

"They love the low blows," Elon Musk commented.

"Nothing says ‘democracy’ like the Biden IRS going after political opponents," the well-known account Clown World stated. "Totally not a weaponized government agency."

"Wow. Weaponized government," Dean Cain remarked. "Anti-American."

"Unreal. No bottom to the Biden Admin’s weaponization," Mike Benz added.

Hegseth’s belief that he was targeted due to his political stance is not without precedent.

Over the past four years, politically motivated law enforcement actions and the persecution of conservatives, Christians, and Trump supporters have become increasingly evident. This has ranged from the January 6, 2021, prosecutions to the imprisonment of pro-life activists, including elderly women, in federal facilities.

The IRS, in particular, has a history of being used as a political tool.

During former President Barack Obama’s tenure, IRS officials based in Washington, D.C., took steps to scrutinize the tax-exempt status of conservative organizations, as revealed in a 2013 report by The Washington Post.

The agency’s headquarters sought details about conservative groups' donors and aspects of their operations.

At the same time, other IRS offices launched inquiries into Tea Party-affiliated organizations.

Obama denied having prior knowledge of these actions but promised 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 asserted that "they have to be held fully accountable."

However, more than a decade later, genuine accountability remains absent.

Democrats have consistently used government institutions to target political adversaries.

No one has felt this more acutely than Trump himself, and those associated with him, like Hegseth, continue to endure similar treatment even after the Democrats have left power.

The new administration faces a significant challenge in eliminating entrenched subversive elements within the deep state—including those with the ability to exploit conservative Americans financially and seize the fruits of their labor.