The rules limit access to several sections of the Pentagon, including office spaces belonging to Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They also bar the press from accessing the Pentagon Athletic Center, writing in a Friday X post that the new rules are meant to “reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures.”

Bedevilled by leaks to the media during his short tenure, defence secretary Pete Hegseth issued a series of restrictions on the press late on Friday. They include banning reporters from entering wide swaths of the Pentagon without a government escort,

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian service at the Pentagon on Wednesday ― an event one former Defense Department lawyer called “incredibly problematic.” Hegseth’s prayer meeting in the auditorium during work hours “appeared to be a first for a Pentagon chief,