If you saw Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office on Friday, he looked to all the world like a puppet at the end of marionette strings. He was bobbing and weaving and nervous as hell. Why? Because the previous night the New York Times had posted a bombshell report about Elon Musk heading to the Pentagon to be briefed on war plans which included a scenario with China as an adversary. Hegseth stood there and praised Musk to the skies. But he was not convincing. Why? As any actor can tell you, if you don’t believe yourself in the part nobody else will believe you either.
Now today, Hegseth is still cosplaying the tough, powerful guy that a Secretary of Defense should be. And many secretaries of defense before him have been formidable men. No question there. But Hegseth isn’t cut from that bolt of cloth. This is governance by reality TV we’re talking about and all that matters is perception, putting on the appearance of competence by talking the MAGA talk and publicly praising the MAGA gods.
So here’s the grave Hegseth began to dig: He demeaned a very accomplished and respected judge, doing nothing more than her job. This is the Trumpian way, attack and accuse. Unfortunately, Hegseth only looks like a complete ass. And he also got social media to speculating that he must have been impaired to post something this stupid. That’s very much within the realm of probability.
Did you write this with ChadGPT?
You’re a drunk rapist Fox host, not George Patton.
Every one of those troops you are demeaning would kick your sorry larping ass.— Jim Stewartson, Antifascist 🇨🇦🇺🇦🏴☠️🇺🇸 (@jimstewartson) March 23, 2025
Army combat vet Fred Wellman said, “You just helped the case you monumental jacka–.”
New York Times columnist David French said, “This is a childish temper tantrum. Either the judge is right on the law or not, and if she’s so obviously wrong then you should have no problem winning on appeal. Go file your appeal and stop whining.”
Legal scholar Norman Ornstein replied to French: “Give him a break, David. He was drunk when he posted this!”
Self-described political junkie Timothy Bellman said, “It sounds like you think you’re above the law.”
Politico’s Kyle Cheney also weighed in on social media Saturday:
“Notably, the Trump administration declined Judge Reyes’ request for a declaration from Secretary Hegseth explaining whether his tweet about the ban transgender troops — which conflicted with the administration’s argument in court — was accurate,” the reporter said.
Former public defender Rob Poggenklass said, “Judge Reyes graduated with honors from Harvard Law, clerked for a judge on the Second Circuit, was named the Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Women’s Bar of DC, and was confirmed by a Senate vote margin twice as big as Justice Kavanaugh.”
Boiled down, this particular judge is lightyears beyond Hegseth in terms of intelligence and achievement and so he has to attack and demean her. The fact that she’s female and has an Hispanic name puts her in the crosshairs. That is the way of this administration, rank amateurs demeaning seasoned professionals. Karoline Leavitt believes she is “running circles around every legacy reporter in the room” and that’s a quote from pro-Leavitt propaganda on Twitter today. No. She’s not. She reveals her lack of preparation and knowledge every time she opens her mouth. So does Hegseth.
When Hegseth was nominated it was noted that a blackout drunk in the chain of command to the nuclear codes was a dangerous proposition. Indeed it is. The day may come where what is left of us are sitting around a guttering fire, looking off at blue-glowing radioactive ruins in the distance and wondering just how we got there. The answer is that we didn’t take the gift of democracy seriously enough. We became an unserious people and squandered the gift of living in a representational democracy.
I hope it doesn’t come to that but I would be lying if I didn’t say that there was a possibility. Hegseth isn’t going to get any more competent. None of them are. But the stakes are going to raise as time goes on and government as we know creeps to a halt, while the executive branch wages war on the judiciary.
We don’t know who is sitting abroad watching this farce and waiting for the right minute to strike. It would be naive to think that that wasn’t happening as we speak. And the Pete Hegseths in this administration are no defense against anything. We are naked, to all intents and purposes.
Hegseth can only function as a pretty boy in a photo op. If and when it comes down to an actual crisis in the Department of Defense, let’s hope some of the generals who have been there a while give him a hand and do the decision making. Or we are doomed.
*********
Zoomers, if you can afford a donation to keep us chugging through cyberspace, it would be appreciated. In all events, thank you for coming here to read. Bring your friends. We need all the help we can get to survive in these trying times. Ursula
Hegseth is typical.about the Trumpian preference for looks over competence. He looks like Trump.called up.a casting director and told them to find a guy who looks likeca general.but will.do.exactly what I tell.him; being guilty of sexual.assault and black out alcoholism.aren’t an issue I care about.
Hegseth a pretty boy? All I see is the inner ugly. It always shines through.