What is Pete Hegseth?

Secretary of Something (he likes to use the term War, but the law says it is still Defense) Pete Hegseth is running for President. He is travelling to Iowa on his own dime, apparently, to check in on the state that often makes or breaks presidential campaigns. There is some speculation he may want to run for Senate somewhere/anywhere in 2028 instead, but he seems to have enough confidence to go straight from the Fox anchor chair where Trump found him, to the Pentagon, and into the Oval Office. He’s that kind of guy.

There is much to complain about Hegseth for those who care about justice, equity, valor and basic qualifications for the job. He has spent his time as leader focused on preventing the promotion of Black and female leaders, testing men for testosterone, and lifting weights. It might be excusable if he did the one thing he is supposed to do well: run a military.

Last week, we learned that Hegseth is destroying the Pentagon in more ways than his anti-woke crusade. The weekend morning news host – he didn’t even have a prime time slot, or a weekday one – can’t fight a war. Maybe if he could actually do the basics of his job, he’d finally deserve that Secretary of War title.

The war against Iran, for example, ranks high on the list of Hegseth’s absurdly disastrous legacy. We have lost that war. Hegseth ignored and continues to ignore military advice about America’s capacity, and Iran’s durability. We wouldn’t know it from Hegseth who has stopped press briefings or interactions with journalists, unless they include pictures of him pumping iron.

But the president wanted that war, and a Secretary follows his Commander in Chief. I’m not forgiving the decision; I was against this war before it went south. But a Defense Secretary should at least know how to plan the basics for a war. Instead, we are running out of ways to fight them, this one or future ones. Our weapons systems are depleted, and Hegseth is begging for more money to replenish an arsenal that was useless against Iran’s drones and strategic targetting of Gulf states and boats in the Strait of Hormouz.

Keeping count of weapons is sort of a primary responsibility of a Secretary of Defense, especially if his military leadership is telling him there is a problem.

The weekend ended with Hegseth indeed focusing on new weapons. He is presumably authorizing Navy battleships. Battleships, in the 21st century, are somewhat unnecessary but the well-known Navy planner – Donald J. Trump – wants them, and Hegseth obliges.

He’s bad with policy, weapons logistics, and military construction, but perhaps his love for the troops can offset it all. He often talks about supporting the warrior ethos, despite the fact he deleted a few soldiers off the casualty list from the Iran war because they occurred during a “ceasefire.” Math can be hard.

But his ongoing treatment of sailors on the USS Lincoln shows that he’s just in over his head. For weeks, both from formal military accounts and pleas from soldiers and their families, the Pentagon allowed the conditions on the Lincoln to deteriorate into a sort of cesspool of broken toilets and inadequate supplies. The aircraft carrier Lincoln is the worst since it has been at sea for months, but other ships are showing strain. Only press attention on soldiers literally jumping off a ship they couldn’t stand anymore got the Pentagon to bring the Lincoln back to the U.S. after more than 260 days at sea.

It is true there have been a few stories that Trump has showed anger towards Hegseth, but there isn’t much copy about the White House ready to throw him out.

Hegseth is a failed Secretary of Defense by any metric imaginable, all politics aside.

So of course he is running for President.

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