Pete Hegseth May Be The Defense Department Boss, But Top Officers Say He’s No Leader

from the pretender-to-the-throne dept

Like far too many people in the Trump administration — including the 79-year-old child currently sitting in the Oval Office — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth thinks he’s owed respect simply because of the position he holds.

While a certain amount of deference is expected when you’re the boss, it’s much more difficult to earn the respect you need to actually be a leader. Hegseth — elevated from his Fox News commentator spot to one of the most powerful positions in the world — not only seems incapable of doing this, but actually seems unwilling to become a true leader.

Instead, Hegseth has become nothing more than a Trump puppet. Puppets generally aren’t given positions of power, but the only people Trump trusts enough to elevate are those who’ve demonstrated there’s nothing they won’t do to push the party line.

Military officials are resigning or getting fired at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, Hegseth (who needed J.D. Vance to set into the Senate to get appointed by a 51-50 vote) has done everything he can to prove he’s unfit to lead. And that’s on top of everything he had already done to demonstrate he should never have been considered for this post. I’ll let Ben Wolfgang of the Washington Times summarize the series of embarrassments that is DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth:

Mr. Hegseth’s nomination was nearly derailed by allegations of personal misconduct, including sexual assault, excessive drinking, spousal abuse and financial mismanagement of two veterans organizations he ran. 

That’s just the stuff he did before Trump decided Hegseth should head up the US military. Since then, Hegseth has been involved with two careless chat conversations about classified military operations. He also embarrassed himself (and the military, by extension) during a public appearance with Trump in which he talked down to a hastily (and expensively) gathered group of top military officials. Hegseth called them fat, ranted about beards, and generally made an ass of himself.

Having laid out what he apparently thought was some sort of plan for the future has left several military officials not only unimpressed, but genuinely worried Hegseth’s tenure will do long-term damage to this institution. Back to Ben Wolfgang and the Washington Times:

High-level sources said that they believe Mr. Hegseth is simultaneously doing deep damage to the military, both from a public relations standpoint and structurally behind the scenes, that may not be fully apparent until months or even years from now.

[…]

They argue that the firings, early retirements and resignations that have amassed over the past eight months will fundamentally weaken the military.

“Across the services, we are bleeding talent, talented generals and flag officers, for what appears to be the opposite of a meritocracy,” another current senior officer said. “There are people being held back from promotions, or being fired, or removed for sometimes unknown reasons, often for favoritism, or just simple relationships.”

The federal government is just one big culture of fear. The damage done by Elon Musk’s DOGE continues to resonate and individual agencies (like the Defense Department) are engaged in persistent purges meant to rid them of everyone but Trump loyalists. It’s no way to run a country, but that’s to be expected, because none of these people are capable of running a country.

Unbelievably, some military officers and officials think an uptick in recruitment proves Hegseth is the right man for the job. But that’s just going to contribute to the long-term problems Hegseth and Trump administration are creating. After all, if the messaging is a blend of ‘roid rage and racist dog whistling, the self-selecting nature of joining the military is going to result in it being filled with a bunch of people similarly unfit to be in the business of defending this nation.

The official response to the Washington Times reporting is exactly what you’d expect it to be:

“The anonymous general and senior officer quoted in your article should put their names to their comments if that’s what they truly believe in and consider resigning from their post. Our warriors deserve senior leaders who support the mission and put warfighting first,” [Pentagon spokesman Sean] Parnell said.

This is self-serving bullshit. It would be one thing if the only consequence for speaking publicly was a firing or a resignation. But this administration is never satisfied by a simple shit-canning. The vengeful thugs running rampant in the Trump regime are always willing to drum up criminal charges for anyone they consider an enemy, even if it’s just people who simply aren’t going to bend the knee or stay silent about the damage being done to the entirety of the US government. This government refuses to consider even the mildest and most constructive of criticism. To these ingrates, any dissent is intolerable, if not actually criminal.

Filed Under: defense department, gop, pete hegseth, signalgate, trump administration