The Briefing
- Six anti-war demonstrators staged a coordinated series of interruptions at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s panel at the AUSA 2026 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., calling him a “war criminal” and “Nazi” before being forcibly removed one by one.
- Security personnel physically carried at least one woman out of the ballroom while she continued shouting; a Getty Images photograph of the removal circulated widely across social media within minutes.
- The disruptions unfolded as Hegseth presented the Pentagon’s Project Agincourt and Autonomous Warfare Command initiative — backed by a $54.6 billion FY2027 budget request — on the final day of the Army’s largest annual conference.
Six anti-war demonstrators took turns standing up inside a packed ballroom at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Wednesday, each waiting until the previous protester had been removed before launching the next round. The target was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was presenting the Pentagon’s vision for autonomous warfare at the U.S. Army’s 2026 Annual Meeting and Exposition. The chants — “war criminal,” “Nazi,” “coward” — were consistent. So was the response: security personnel and law enforcement officers escorted or physically removed each demonstrator in turn, and in at least one instance carried a screaming woman out of the room by her arms and legs.
A Coordinated Disruption, Not a Spontaneous Outburst
The sequence was deliberate. According to Military Times, four protesters disrupted the panel within the first five minutes, with two more following before the 20-minute mark. Each person waited for the preceding removal to be completed before standing up — effectively stretching the confrontation across the opening portion of the roughly hour-long session. Hegseth recognized the strategy almost immediately. “Appears we have a bit of a tactic,” he told the room — a remark that drew applause from an audience of defense industry executives and senior Army officials.
The AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition is the largest and most prominent gathering in the U.S. Army calendar, drawing top military leadership, defense contractors, and senior government officials. Hegseth appeared on the final day of the three-day conference alongside Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and Assistant Secretary of Defense Derrick Anderson, with former Navy officer Owen West moderating.
What the Protesters Shouted
“You’re spending more on killing children in Gaza, while children in America are starving,” one demonstrator shouted before removal. Another cried out, “You’re killing my family,” and a third told Hegseth that “the world f—— hates you.” The final protester, per Military Times, escalated the accusations to include Nazi references, war crimes, and a reference to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. All six protests returned, with varying language, to U.S. military operations in Iran and the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Sections of the audience pushed back with chants of “USA, USA, USA” before the room settled. Hegseth did not engage the substance of the protesters’ arguments directly.
The Moment That Defined the Scene
The most striking image of the morning came from a woman who could not be walked out of the room voluntarily. Multiple security officers were required to physically lift her from her seat — holding her arms and legs — and carry her out of the ballroom while she continued shouting. A photograph taken by Getty Images photographer Kevin Dietsch captured the moment and spread across social media platforms within minutes.
Hegseth’s Response: Sarcasm, Then Irritation
After the first demonstrator was removed, Hegseth deflected with a quip — “She thinks highly of me” — drawing brief laughter from the audience. As the interruptions accumulated, however, his composure visibly deteriorated. By the end of the sequence, he had abandoned the humor and shifted to direct assertion, insisting that Iran would never, under any circumstances, acquire a nuclear weapon, and dismissing the protesters’ message as political noise rather than substantive challenge.
Project Agincourt and the Autonomous Warfare Command
The panel’s focus — before and after the disruptions — was Project Agincourt, the organizational pathway toward the Pentagon’s planned Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom. Hegseth announced AutoWarCom on September 30, 2026, during his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, describing the initiative as part of “the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.” The AUSA conference was the first major public forum where he expanded on that vision before the broader defense industry community…