Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed Monday that his family is being subjected to an IRS audit and blamed the outgoing Biden administration for sending the agency after him.
Hegseth shared a photo of a notice from the IRS that the federal government is auditing his family’s income tax return and that they owe over $33,000 for the relevant tax period.
“Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an ‘audit’ of the incoming SecDef. Total sham,” Hegseth said on X.
“The party of ‘norms’ and ‘decency’ strikes again. We will never back down,” he added.
National Review has reached out to the IRS for comment.
Former president Joe Biden’s term ended last month upon President Donald Trump’s inauguration. While in office, Biden’s IRS received a funding boost from the Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 budget reconciliation bill that congressional Democrats passed along partisan lines. The legislation was projected to lead to the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents thanks to $80 billion of new funding and hundreds of billions worth of projected revenue. Two years later, the IRS reached the $1 billion milestone of money recovered from increased tax enforcement.
On day one, Trump paused the hiring of new federal employees with exceptions for national security and public safety roles. Trump’s order will only lift for the IRS when the administration determines it is in the national interest to end the freeze.
Trump nominated Hegseth to be Defense Secretary in November soon after winning the 2024 presidential election decisively against former Vice President Kamala Harris. A surprise pick, Hegseth was previously a Fox News host who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming an advocate for veterans. Hegseth also has degrees from Harvard and Princeton.
Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Hegseth last month after Hegseth faced allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, and financial mismanagement, causing three GOP Senators to oppose his confirmation. In responding to the allegations, Hegseth accused partisan left-wing media of waging a smear campaign based on anonymous sources and credited his Christian faith and third wife, Jennifer, for making him a better person.
Hegseth received public support from many Fox News colleagues, military veterans, and employees at the veterans non-profits he steered. During the confirmation process, Hegseth promised to root progressive ideology out of the military and raise fighting standards to strengthen the armed forces.
Hegseth has already begun implementing Trump’s executive orders to ban the military from funding transgender procedures and to prevent the military from admitting people who identify as transgender. He is also removing left-wing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and reinstating troops who were pushed out of the military for refusing to take the Covid-19 vaccine.
Last week, Hegseth told a gathering of NATO officials that membership for Ukraine was unlikely to happen as part of a settlement to end the three-year long conflict between Ukraine and Russia. He later clarified that President Trump will set the terms of the negotiations and that his pronouncements are not definitive.