U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team broke one of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s historic globes while attempting to move it into Hegseth’s office.
News of the incident broke in October, but it occurred in February.
Rumors that a team working for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accidentally damaged an historic artifact in the Pentagon while trying to move it into Hegseth’s office circulated in October.
People on social media spread the news of the alleged blunder, purporting that Hegseth wanted one of former President Dwight. D. Eisenhower’s historic globes to be rehoused in his work space.
According to the claim, a crew attempting to move the globe dropped and damaged it.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted a historic World War II-era globe associated with Dwight D. Eisenhower moved to his Pentagon office. On February 3, his staff tried moving it without professional curators, who were furloughed during a government shutdown. They dropped the globe, puncturing its shell and breaking its rotating mount. The damaged artifact was never relocated. Source: WaPo
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 22, 2026
The claim was true, Pentagon officials confirmed.
The story first came to light with a report from The Washington Post published on Oct. 22, citing sources “familiar with the incident.” The paper also noted that an unnamed source, not the Pentagon, provided the photographs included in the report.
The Washington Post wrote that instead of “trained curators” relocating the object in question, as is standard for moving historical objects within the Pentagon, “Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe” on Feb. 3.
According to the report, Hegseth’s team “lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide.”
In addition, photos showed that the globe appeared to have become detached from its mount.
An official for the Defense Department confirmed the accuracy of The Washington Post’s reporting in an email to Snopes via email and added:
An accident occurred while staff were transporting a replica of the Eisenhower globe as part of its relocation. Accidents happen, we are grateful no one was harmed, and the globe is being repaired. It is unsurprising that the Washington Post is once again dedicating time to another inconsequential non-story.
The Army also responded to Snopes’ request for comment but referred us to the Pentagon.
The Post story also pointed out that at the time of the incident, “history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown stemming from a dispute in Congress over aspects of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.” As a result, according to the report, “Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves.”
The shutdown ended the same day the globe was damaged. The globe was ultimately not moved into Hegseth’s office, according to the Post.
A sign displayed with the damaged globe described it as “first used by Dwight D. Eisenhower while serving on the General Staff as Chief of the War Plans Division from February to March 1942 and Operations Division from March to June 1942.”
Eisenhower was reported to have an interest in globes, and there are many historic photographs of him posing near globes that can be viewed on the Getty Images repository.
For further reading on Hegseth, we’ve previously examined a meme comparing Hegseth’s speech backdrop to Hitler’s eagle imagery and debunked claims that he sported an emo look in a high school yearbook photo.
