To co-opt a famed riddle about drug addicts and alcoholics: How do you know a member of the Trump Administration is lying?
Answer: Their lips are moving.
As we’ve come to learn, there are only three qualifications for someone getting hired by Trump:
- They must have a criminal disposition.
- They must be capable of lying with impunity and without shame.
- They must be loyal to dear leader at all costs.
No one embodies these qualities with greater fervor than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is so adept at dishonesty that he has taken even the concept of lying about lying to a level rarely achieved in political annals.
The only area where Hegseth exceeds his capacity for deceit is when it comes to his overall stupidity. And if you combine his duplicity with that utter incompetence, it produces something even more dangerous. In isolation, either would be bad enough. But in combination, the scariest part is the way one protects the other. Bad judgment produces failure, dishonesty prevents accountability for the failure, and the absence of culpability guarantees that the dreadful reasoning survives, even thrives.
It's the perfect storm of horrible.
We can easily see Hegseth’s documented pattern of error followed by denial, exaggeration or self-exoneration in the current crisis enveloping the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln Naval aircraft carrier. This is the very same vessel that’s been carrying some 5,000 sailors and Marines for nearly nine months amid plummeting morale due to reported deteriorating conditions. These include moldy showers, long stretches without hot water, food shortages, out-of-service laundry facilities, disrupted mail and crew members losing their minds.
Hegseth naturally dismissed these concerns as “completely misrepresented” in terms of what’s really been happening. He assured reporters during a press gaggle in Panama that every ship has every amenity the Pentagon can provide.
Meanwhile, despite this supposed soft-peddling of any issues onboard what has been a record-setting deployment of the Lincoln that exceeded its planned mission by some three months, the U.S. Navy is rushing the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George Washington to the Asia-Pacific region to relieve the Lincoln despite its supposedly being just fine.
Yes, of course it’s all a great big lie. That goes without saying. In this case and every case, actions speak louder than untruthful words. Insincerity lay at the heart of everything these people do or utter, designed to cover for their fabrication and idiocy.
Yet somehow, this story has impacted me to a far greater degree than the usual administration horse manure. Word has leaked that these military forces on the Lincoln had grown so miserable while being trapped on what was essentially a floating prison that some were suicidal and attempted to jump overboard.
The only reason word leaked out about the abysmal conditions on the ship was that family members were revealing it in defiance of threats not to embarrass the military or else. And then when it finally did hit the media, it was naturally dismissed as – all together now – FAKE NEWS.
As is the case every time, this corrupt administration has a remarkable explanation/solution for every inconvenient reality it confronts: deny it. It’s always worked for Donald Trump, as taught by his mentor Roy Cohn once upon a time. If the facts don’t work well for the current situation, attack them as false. If that doesn’t work, condemn the reporters. Always question the credibility of anyone who doesn’t adhere to the company line.
Try to imagine this: we are supposed to believe that sailors and cadets and their families with nothing to gain all independently fabricated a story to demean and embarrass the Pentagon and upset Hegseth.
I also read a story Friday about how “Democratic senators have begun raising concerns about the extended deployment” of the carrier. That’s reassuring. But what about the Republican senators? Are horrid living conditions for active members of the military somehow a partisan issue? Where is the outrage from Republican members of Congress demanding access to the ship.
This is the same party that has spent decades telling us they’re the ones who support the troops. The center of the GOP is its love for those doing their patriotic duty — or so it claims.
Apparently, in the face of such lies, those senators and representatives have dropped the ball on doing their job. No demands for answers. No righteous indignation. Just deafness and blindness when it’s their party driving the fiasco. Coming to the rescue of these troops can’t hold a candle to the promises they can’t disavow quickly enough when faced with an opportunity.
Why should it matter who is in charge when servicemen and women are victimized by a government that evidently prefers platitudes to adequate resources?
These are people serving their country, not disposable pawns who can easily be ignored when their needs become too public and distressing. They did not sign up for incompetent leadership, inadequate nourishment and medical care, unclean water, dysfunctional sanitation and a lack of mental health assistance when things go south. When they’re victimized, for whatever reason, you don’t sweep their issues under the rug because they’ve made you look bad.
What is it going to take to prove that things have gone completely off the rails if not sailors feeling so despairing that they’re trying to abandon ship? I mean, for God’s sake, the one thing everyone ought to be able to agree on – Democrat or Republican, Black or white, young or old, rich or poor, blue or red – is that we need to take care of the people defending our nation.
If you’re the secretary of defense and you can’t be bothered to make sure the people you are charged with overseeing receive the bare basics to sustain them physically and emotionally, maybe it’s time to dump him and find a guy who can.
I know that actual competence is a radical concept today. But maybe it’s worth a shot. Take a good look at where ineptitude has landed us.
(Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.)
