According to a formal complaint filed with a military watchdog group in early 2026, a U.S. military commander told his combat unit — men and women with guns and aircraft and the capacity to start or end things — that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
This was at a briefing. Before a mission. In the actual military of the United States of America.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which apparently needs to exist, reports receiving more than 200 complaints from service members across more than 50 military installations describing commanders who are framing the Iran war as the fulfillment of Christian biblical prophecy. More than two dozen members of Congress have called for an investigation into the Department of Defense over the claims.
To be clear about what is happening here: active military commanders are telling enlisted service members, in a theater of war, that they are personally participating in the End Times. The good news is that Jesus is reportedly rooting for them. The bad news is everything else about this sentence.
Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense and open evangelical Christian nationalist, has recast military leadership in his image. He described a pilot rescued on Easter Sunday as being “reborn.” Trump, at a press conference, said of the war: “God is good.” The Pope disagrees.
We did not make this up. The Intercept has the full story. It keeps going.