Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Sunday he has considered ordering large amounts of takeout to throw off online trackers who monitor pizza deliveries near the Pentagon as a signal of potential military action.

Hegseth referenced the “Pentagon Pizza Report,” an account on X that tracks Google Maps 'popular times” data at pizza restaurants near the Pentagon and other major military installations. The theory behind the account is that sudden late-night surges in orders may indicate senior defense officials are working extended hours in response to unfolding global events.

“I’ve thought of just ordering lots of pizza on random nights just to throw everybody off,” Hegseth said. “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. We look at every indicator.”

The account gained attention in June when it noted a spike in activity at multiple pizza locations near the Pentagon hours before Israel launched major strikes on Iran. Although the U.S. said it was not involved in the initial June 12 attacks, American forces later participated in the 12-day conflict by striking three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 in an operation known as Midnight Hammer.

Hegseth said defense officials are aware of open-source monitoring efforts and take them into account when planning operations. “There’s a reason Midnight Hammer worked, because we understood open-sourced, we understand classified ways in which the public and others are trying to watch movements,” he said, adding that the department manages sensitive information carefully.

The practice of monitoring pizza deliveries as a proxy for national security activity dates back decades. In 1991, during the lead-up to the Gulf War, a Washington-area Domino’s franchise owner told the Los Angeles Times that the CIA ordered 21 pizzas the night before Iraq invaded Kuwait, at the time a record order.

While the “Pentagon Pizza Report” was launched in August 2024, the broader phenomenon reflects how open-source data and seemingly mundane indicators can attract attention during periods of geopolitical tension. Defense officials, Hegseth suggested, are mindful that even pizza orders can become part of the information battlefield.