The Pentagon is pushing back on allegations that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is politicizing the military with his planned Monday appearance in Kentucky to campaign for the man who is challenging Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

“Secretary Hegseth is attending this event in his personal capacity,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Hill. “No taxpayer dollars will be used to facilitate his visit. His participation has been thoroughly vetted and cleared by lawyers, including the Department of War Office of General Counsel, and does not violate the Hatch Act or any other applicable federal statute.”

Hegseth has been accused of potentially violating the Hatch Act in stumping for former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, the Trump-backed GOP candidate challenging Massie. Under federal law, executive branch employees — with the exception of the president and vice president — are limited in using government resources or their official titles for partisan political activity.

The appearance also would mark an unprecedented breach of the tradition that a serving Defense secretary stay away from such political activities to maintain the military’s apolitical image.

Retired Army Reserve and counterintelligence expert Lawrence Sellin wrote on X that if Hegseth “in his official capacity as Defense Secretary intervenes in a Congressional primary . . . it is a violation of the Hatch Act and should be immediately removed from office.”

The “Deep State” was “setting up Pete Hegseth to violate the Hatch Act” with his campaign appearance, conservative operative Ivan Raiklin wrote on X.

But the Pentagon chief’s office pushed back on any idea that the campaign stop was unethical.

Hegseth will already be in Kentucky on Monday as part of official duties to award Purple Heart medals to 101st Airborne Division soldiers and to administer the oath of enlistment to 190 reenlistees at Fort Campbell.

He will then attend a rally for Gallrein put on by conservative advocacy organization America First Works.

The GOP contest in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District has become the most expensive House primary battle in U.S. history, according to AdImpact, drawing $25.6 million in television, radio and digital advertising.

President Trump in October endorsed Gallrein, who has pledged to be in lockstep with the administration. Massie, meanwhile, has drawn the ire of the president for voting repeatedly against his policies, including tax legislation and the war in Iran.

Massie last week was one of three House Republicans to cross the aisle to support a resolution that would have directed Trump to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran.

“Tom Massie of Kentucky, the worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country, is an even bigger insult to our Nation than Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who suffered an unprecedented loss tonight by not even being allowed to run in the Republican Primary,” the president wrote in an early Sunday morning post on Truth Social.

But Massie on Sunday said that Trump’s efforts to unseat him will only boost fundraising for his campaign and shows the administration’s desperation.

“You can tell that I’m ahead in the polls and they’re desperate. That’s why they’re sending the secretary of War to my district tomorrow,” Massie said Sunday during an appearance on ABC News’s “This Week.”

This story was updated at 11:34 a.m.

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