The US Department of Defense is the largest government agency in the country. A sprawling and massive bureaucracy, the DOD houses the world’s largest military power, employs nearly 3 million people — greater than the population of many states — and has direct control over the armed forces of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Command.
The Secretary of Defense manages an annual budget exceeding $800 billion, with 1.3 million servicemembers on active duty, 825,000 Reserve and National Guard members, and another 600,000 civilian employees. Frank Carlucci, Secretary of Defense under Reagan, described the position as “one of the more difficult jobs anywhere in the world. He has to be a mini-Secretary of State, a procurement expert, a congressional relations expert. He has to understand the budget process. And he should have operational knowledge.”
Given the life-and-death gravity of a role affecting millions of servicemembers and hundreds of millions of civilians worldwide, Defense Secretaries are typically well-seasoned military experts with decades of high-ranking strategic and military operations under their belts. For a quick comparison, Lloyd Austin, the current secretary, served in the military for 41 years, Mark Esper for 21 years, and James Mattis for 40 years, and all three had distinguished combat service, high rank, and impeccable service records.
Enter Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Hegseth served in the Minnesota National Guard, was forced out of two veteran’s not-for-profits due to public drunkenness and misconduct, then became a Fox News host.
Trump spits on the armed services. Again.
Hegseth lacks senior military command experience, operations management, and national security experience. Hegseth is so profoundly lacking in relevant strategic or military experience that even Fox News reported it, if fleetingly, back in November. Deviating briefly from pro-Trump propaganda, Fox reported that Hegseth’s nomination likely depended more on loyalty to Trump than any military qualifications.
The Pentagon’s top policy official under the Bush administration, Eric Edelman, said that the main criteria Trump used to select Hegseth and other cabinet nominees was how good they looked on TV and “how well they could defend Donald Trump” in the media.
Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Independent Veterans of America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, posted on X that, Hegseth is “undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for Secretary of Defense in American history, and the most overtly political. Brace yourself, America,” he added, Hegseth will be a “ferocious media, culture and political warrior for MAGA.”
Hegseth champions more “lethality”
During his confirmation hearing, when Senators asked direct questions about a litany of public drunkenness and sexual abuse allegations, Hegseth punted, calling every accusation an “anonymous smear.” His preferred narratives seem to be that “wokeness” is ruining the military, and our troops need more “lethality.”
His embrace of lethality doesn’t stop where the law says it should. Supporting Trump’s 2019 pardons, Hegseth advocated leniency for war crimes that were opposed by active duty military personnel who saw the misconduct first-hand. Pressed on this during his confirmation hearing, Hegseth testified that he had “thought very deeply about the balance between legality and lethality,” and that when it comes to “destroying the enemy,” i.e., killing people, the law “should not be getting in the way.”
Hegseth also rejected the possibility that Trump would ever issue an illegal order, ignoring recent history. In 2020, Trump asked that the 82nd Airborne be deployed against civilians in Washington, D.C. who were protesting the murder of George Floyd. Mark Esper, secretary of defense at the time, talked Trump out of it. On questioning, Hegseth refused to say that he’d follow Esper’s example, calling the very real situation a “hypothetical.”
Hegseth clearly envisions a more violent American military with domestic “enemies” in its crosshairs.
Hegseth’s aversion to women in the military shows a lack of experience
Hegseth has consistently spoken against women in the military, saying recently that, “We should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.” During a November interview on the Sean Ryan Show, he said, “The (military) standards have been lowered. I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.”
The Department of Defense officially opened combat roles to women in 2016, even though women have fought in combat for many years. In 2022, the Army lowered specific parts of the annual physical fitness exam for women and older troops, female and male. The Army Combat Fitness Test still includes dead lift, power throw, push-ups, plank, run, and sprint-drag-carry regular fitness tests. Qualifying for demanding combat positions or specialties such as Army Ranger or Green Beret still requires everyone, regardless of age or gender, to pass the same fitness tests and standards. In fact, all branches of the military still require women to pass the same strict fitness tests as men for physically challenging specialty jobs.
More than 300,000 US women were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan even though, at the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq, women were still officially banned from ground combat. As The Guardian describes the transition, “…insurgent attacks meant that female troops quickly found themselves under enemy fire – and they began firing back. Twenty years on, what started on that chaotic battlefield in Iraq ended up changing the US armed forces forever.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, who flew combat missions in Iraq, commented that, “(Hegseth’s) idea that you can exclude women from combat is one that really shows his lack of experience. Let’s be real, in modern warfare there is no forward line of troops like you had, where you could keep women.”
Hegseth will likely be confirmed
Due to his obvious and dangerous lack of credentials, Hegseth was considered unlikely to pass Senate confirmation until MAGA operatives organized a campaign to threaten any Republican who expressed reservations about him. Mike Davis, who worked the hill to get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed, smirked, “We gave the Senate an attitude adjustment.”
Hegseth is now expected to be confirmed, despite his abysmal and substandard confirmation performance.
Throughout his hearing, Hegseth punted on all meaningful questions, and repeated that the military had lowered its standards to accommodate women. Expecting confirmation as the least qualified Secretary of Defense in US history, not only is Hegseth blind to military law, he is blind to irony.
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Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, the Haake Take, is free.
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