Hegseth says suspensions lifted for helicopter crews who hovered over Kid Rock home

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 31 Mar 2026 19.30 EDT


Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the crews of two US army AH-64 Apache helicopters that hovered next to the singer Kid Rock’s swimming pool while he clapped and saluted on Saturday are no longer suspended. “No punishment. No investigation,” Hegseth wrote on social media. “Carry on, patriots.” Hegseth’s announcement came just hours after a US army spokesperson said the crews had been suspended from flying pending a investigation.

“The army has confirmed that on 28 March, two Apache helicopters from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell conducted a flight in the Nashville area that has attracted public and media attention,” according to a statement from the army on Tuesday. The army said it was reviewing “the circumstances surrounding the mission, including compliance with relevant FAA regulations, aviation safety protocol, and approval requirements”.

Kid Rock, a supporter of Donald Trump, told WKRN-TV on Monday it was not uncommon for helicopters from nearby Fort Campbell to fly near his home. He said he was a big supporter of the military. He has performed for troops overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.

“I think they know this is a pretty friendly spot,” he said. He said that last Thanksgiving he was at Fort Campbell, a sprawling army base on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, with Vice-President JD Vance. “I’ve talked to some of these pilots. I’ve told them, ‘You guys see me waving when you come by the house?’ I’m like, ‘You guys are always welcome to cruise by my house any time,’” he said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/31/hegseth-kid-rock-army-helicopter-video

[groundloop]

1. That's sending a hell of a message to our troops....

Rules don't apply to rich magats.

[graycampervan]

3. Kid

Join the fucking Army if you love it so much! Your money making days are over.

[kacekwl]

2. It's clear as day that this administration

follows no rules but their own, no laws but their own and no constitution. They are all rouge law breakers who's agenda only benefits them. Come Republican do the fucking job you swore an oath to.

[Bread and Circuses]

4. So using this as a baseline...

Pilots can steal OUR military equipment and go for a joyride?

What’s next ? Flyover a protest and and have the rotor blades blow over people ?

A few Hellfire missiles misfire? OOPS !

[denvine]

5. I hope Democrats are keeping track

of all the violations and crimes they will be able to investigate when they take control. There are just so many to keep track of!

[Red Mountain]

6. The unprofessional Army

can't see how that would go wrong.

[angrychair]

7. This is incredibly bad

This pilots violated dozens of safety regs and not to mention significant waste of tax payer money.

This undermining of discipline and military leadership is a slap in the face and absolutely disgusting.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. good ole boy club.

[riversedge]

9. Pete Hegseth is the real DEI hire.......

Link to tweet

?s=20

[thought crime]

10. Kid Rock is this year's My Pillow Guy.

I don't pay much attention, but I do know they're goof-balls.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. MaddowBlog-Hegseth's intervention in Kid Rock flyby fiasco is part of a more serious problem

Even Donald Trump conceded that the helicopter pilots “probably shouldn’t” have done what they did. His defense secretary came to a different conclusion.

Hegseth’s intervention in Kid Rock flyby fiasco was ridiculous, but it’s the larger context that matters:

An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States. It is a principle for which Team Trump has no use, creating an untenable dynamic.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-01T14:50:01.253Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kid-rock-helicopter-hegseth-trump

Even Donald Trump conceded on Monday that the helicopter pilots “probably shouldn’t have been doing it” since “you’re not supposed to be playing games, right?”

The president’s defense secretary, however, came to a very different conclusion soon after. The New York Times reported:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday abruptly reversed the suspension of Army crews that piloted two Apache helicopters close to the musician Kid Rock’s residence in Nashville over the weekend. […]

Mr. Hegseth appeared to end both the suspensions and the investigation, with a social media post on Tuesday night declaring: ‘No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.’

The Times added that the moves represented “a remarkable intervention from the highest level of the Pentagon,” adding that the decree “was another indication of his contempt for legal guardrails in the military.”......

An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States. Partisan, ideological and electoral considerations must be utterly irrelevant to what the military is and how it functions.

It is nevertheless a principle for which Trump and his team appear to have no use, creating an untenable dynamic: In a healthy democracy, the politicization of the military isn’t just misguided, it’s also genuinely dangerous.

In October, The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols highlighted what he described as an ongoing “civil-military crisis,” arguing that “Trump and his valet at the Defense Department, Secretary of Physical Training Pete Hegseth, are now making a dedicated run at turning the men and women of the armed forces into Trump’s personal and partisan army.”

Hegseth’s intervention in the Kid Rock flyby fiasco offered timely evidence that bolstered the underlying fears.