FOLLOW THE MONEY - How Pete Hegseth tried (and failed) to reap a defense stock WINDFALL while beating Iran war drums.

The corruption in the Trump administration just got even worse, something that few people thought was even possible.

The Financial Times is reporting that, according to three sources familiar with the matter, Pete Hegseth's broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in BlackRock's Defense Industrials Active ETF - a fund that invests specifically in companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX, whose biggest customer is the United States Department of Defense.

You know, the department that Pete Hegseth runs, although he prefers to call it (aptly these days) the Department of War. The department that was, at that very moment, preparing to launch a massive military strike on Iran.

This is what insider trading looks like when the insider is the Secretary of Defense. The man helping plan the war was trying to buy stock in the companies that profit from the war. Before the war started

It's unbelievable that Hegseth thought he could do this without anyone noticing, but when your boss is ready to pardon anyone he feels like, he must have felt invincible.

Luckily, for both Hegseth and any honest investors in the stock market, the investment was not completed. But only because the fund wasn't yet available on Morgan Stanley's platform.

Not because anyone stopped it. Not because Hegseth had a crisis of conscience. Just a paperwork problem.

Financial Times reports that Hegseth has been identified by President Trump himself as the first person in his national security circle to push for war with Iran. He was one of the loudest, most aggressive advocates for the attack - a man who, by his own account, was deeply involved in planning and championing the military campaign (not something he should think of as a point of pride at this stage of the war, we reckon.) And while he was doing all of that, his broker was on the phone with BlackRock trying to cash in on it.

This is precisely the kind of trading that Wall Street analysts have been scrutinizing for months - suspicious moves in financial markets ahead of major Trump administration decisions. The pattern keeps emerging. The profiteering keeps happening. And nobody is being held accountable.

Pete Hegseth is a former Fox News host who made millions telling working Americans that the system was rigged against them. Now he's the Secretary of Defense, helping start a war, and allegedly trying to personally profit from the carnage before the bombs even dropped.

BlackRock's Defense Industrials Active ETF fund has risen 28 percent over the past year. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX are thanking their lucky stars - and possibly Pete Hegseth.

Please like and share this article if you think the Secretary of Defense shouldn't be allowed to trade defense stocks. Ever. Full stop.