HEGSETH BREAKS EISENHOWER’S GLOBE; THE SECRETARY’S MOTHER IS QUOTED
WASHINGTON — The Secretary of Defense broke Dwight D. Eisenhower’s globe in the spring, according to persons familiar with the matter, and the United States government has been making do with a replacement model of the earth that federal preservation officials describe as having “significantly less history” and “a noticeably lower purchase price.”
The globe, a rotating model manufactured in Chicago in the early 1940s and kept in the Pentagon office of the Secretary, was used by Eisenhower in the planning of the Allied invasion of Europe. Pentagon historians note that it is one of the few surviving instruments of the war that can be said, without exaggeration, to have been turned by the hand that won it. It came through Normandy, the Bulge, and the crossing of the Rhine without damage. It did not survive the current administration’s first spring.
The Secretary’s office declined to state how the globe came to be broken, saying only that the damage is “under review.” Aides speaking on background were more forthcoming, noting that the globe was a fixture of the office, that it was frequently gestured at during briefings, and that a globe, like a briefing, can only absorb so much emphasis. “There was a discussion of troop movements,” one aide said. “The movements were demonstrated at some speed.”
The Pentagon’s chief curator declined to put a value on the loss, saying that an object used by a Supreme Allied Commander to plan the liberation of a continent is “not the sort of thing that has a value, which is precisely why it cannot be replaced.” The replacement globe was presented by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on a recent visit to the Pentagon. Federal preservation staff, who examined it under the standards applied to gifts of office furnishings, recorded its country of origin as “the internet” and its estimated value as “consistent with same-day delivery.” The equator, one staffer noted, is printed slightly crooked.
A spokesman for the Mayor’s office, asked whether the gift was intended as a commentary on the Secretary’s stewardship of historical artifacts, said the Mayor “wishes the Secretary many happy years with his new globe” and declined to characterize it further.
It remains unclear whether the Secretary has been informed that the damaged globe was the Eisenhower globe, or whether the replacement was positioned in the office by staff who hoped, in the manner of parents everywhere, that it would not be noticed. A visitor to the office last week reported that the Secretary spun it twice, remarked that it seemed lighter, and moved on.
Reached for comment, the Secretary’s mother said she had warned him.
“This is why we can’t have nice things,” she said. “I told him that when he was nine. I have told him that at every age since. He breaks a plate, it’s this is why we can’t have nice things. He breaks a coffee table, same thing. A globe that General Eisenhower used to beat Hitler — well.” She paused. “Some mothers don’t get to say it about history.”
The historical preservation staff say the original globe has been removed to a secure location for assessment, where it joins a small and growing collection of items the Pentagon describes, in its internal inventory, as “awaiting a quieter era.”
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