The billionaire hidden behind the curtain inside Trump’s Pentagon

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, The billionaire hidden behind the curtain inside Trump’s Pentagon, Media-shy financier Stephen Feinberg has quietly amassed extraordinary influence over US military spending The only available video over the last 15 months of the official who really wields power in Donald Trump ’s Pentagon is a cartoon animation. Released in May on X by the US government, it shows a silver haired figure in a grey suit lighting up a cigar and sitting at a massive wooden desk with a nameplate: DEPSECWAR FEINBERG. Stephen Feinberg, the 66-year-old billionaire founder of the private equity giant Cerberus Capital Management, has served as the deputy secretary of defense since March 2025. His boss, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth , makes frequent appearances working out with troops or insulting reporters at press conferences, and posts often on social media. But Feinberg does not show his face. He has been obsessively media shy for decades, and is so reclusive that since

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Technology file for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-06-18T18:01:38+00:00.

What to watch

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Source

Primary source: The billionaire hidden behind the curtain inside Trump’s Pentagon via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.