Hegseth jokes Pentagon pizza spikes might be him ordering to 'throw everybody off'

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged the existence of the viral Pentagon Pizza Report — an online phenomenon that uses publicly available indicators to monitor pizza shop activity near the Pentagon and try to correlate sudden surges with potential military action — by jokingly saying it could be him ordering food "just to throw everybody off."

Hegseth was asked about the account on X and told Fox News on Sunday, “Some Friday night when you see a bunch of Domino's orders, it might just be me on an app, throwing the whole system off so we keep everybody off balance."

The tracker relies on publicly visible data — such as Google Maps “popular times” and “live visits” for restaurants near the Pentagon — to flag unusual surges in activity that some observers interpret as signs that officials are working late or under high pressure.

For example, in June 2025, the Pentagon Pizza Report noted a notable spike in activity near multiple pizza establishments shortly before Israel launched a major operation against Iran.

“As of 6:59 p.m. ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity,” a post on X read at the time.

Hegseth added that defense officials are “aware” of open-sourced information and “look at every indicator,” which he linked — in broad terms — to how the U.S. executed Operation Midnight Hammer, the strikes on Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure.

“In sensitive ways, we control for a lot of that in ways that only the US government can," he said. "There’s only one military that can do what we can do, which is why it’s such a solemn responsibility for me to make sure the leaders this military has are leaders they deserve.”

The tracker spiked again in early January 2026, around the time U.S. forces conducted Operation Absolute Resolve and captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

The fascination with pizza tracking coinciding with military operations dates back to the early 1990s, when a Domino’s franchise owner reported an extraordinarily high number of pizzas delivered to CIA and Pentagon locations the night before Iraq invaded Kuwait, kicking off the Gulf War.