he 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 undersecretary 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 his confirmation hearing he has not testified to a single committee on CapitaI Hill, has held no press conferences and given no interviews. His press spokesperson left the government months into his tenure and has not been replaced.

Still, 10 people across Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the defense contracting community say Feinberg has far eclipsed Hegseth in actual influence and impact.

"Everything is centered around Feinberg," one veteran Pentagon bureaucrat said.

"I don't think there's anything that goes on that he doesn't have a stake in," said a financier familiar with his operations at the department.

. . .