Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's "manly act" and posturing have prompted even his MAGA allies to question his leadership, an analyst reported Friday.
Salon's Amanda Marcotte described Hegseth as obsessed over his appearance — even pushing out photographers who take photos he deems unflattering — and his efforts to be a "big man" have started to reveal who he really is amid the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.
"His efforts to butch himself up are so grasping that they inevitably backfire, revealing his vanity, insecurity and weakness — qualities that are very much the opposite of the John Wayne ideal of masculinity to which MAGA aspires," Marcotte wrote.
"Liberals have always laughed at Hegseth and his self-owning, try-hard energy," Marcotte explained. "But with the Iran war, even his fellow travelers in overcompensation, the MAGA bros, are starting to worry about the vicarious emasculation that is likely to come with his embarrassing failure to live up to his vaunted — and frequently espoused — 'warrior ethos.'"
As the war with Iran drags on to its 14th day, questions have mounted over Hegseth's comments.
"Hegseth’s rhetoric is so alarming that it sometimes eclipses how he also can come across like an eight-year-old boy inventing dialogue for the villain in his G.I. Joe game," Marcotte wrote. "He likes to say things like, 'maximum lethality, not tepid legality' and 'violent effect, not politically correct.' It’s impossible to hear the secretary spout these rhymes and not picture how he must have practiced them in front of the mirror in his rumored makeup studio at the Pentagon, imagining himself the hero of an action movie, unable to realize that he’s making most listeners feel embarrassed on his behalf."
But Hegseth may have underestimated what would be required to wage this war.
"As long as Hegseth keeps his chest-thumping and pull-up contests in the land of make-believe, these men are happy," Marcotte wrote. "Like their hero, the only masculine strength they seem interested in is the kind performed for cameras, far away from real-world challenges that might easily defeat their self-image as the mightiest of men. Hegseth, however, had to ruin it all by leading the U.S. into a real war with Iran. Unlike the imaginary wars conducted in right-wing rhetoric, which are won by yelling 'no homo,' real wars are hard. They require planning, foresight and smart people, including women and minorities, to win — and even then, only if you’re quite lucky. War is not for clowns and fake tough guys."
He has continued trying to align himself with MAGA.
"Hegseth talks about how he’s 'politically incorrect,' as if that makes him tough," Marcotte added. "But there is no man that is weaker than one who revels in harming others in a pathetic bid to feel bigger. In the abstract, it’s easy to convince a lot of people that it’s the height of manly fortitude to extol your own sadism as loudly as he does. In practice, it looks not just immoral but pathetic: killing little girls and then not even having the guts to admit that you did."