Pete Hegseth Is New York Times' Best-Dressed Predator Of 2025
What big eyes he has!
Pete Hegseth, once trusted only to host Fox & Friends on weekends, will soon lead the United States Defense Department. Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark described Hegseth as “historically, hilariously, unfit.” I might quibble with the “hilarious” part. This isn’t a political satire. It’s real life, and the Defense Department is charged with “coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the U.S. government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces.” That sounds important.
Democrats have hammered Hegseth on his overall unfitness and horrible moral character. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran who lost her legs in Iraq, was rightly insulted that the Senate is even considering Hegseth.
“Every day, our servicemembers follow the Soldier’s Creed as we ask them to leave their families, walk into enemy fire and be ready for the mission until their very last breath,” she said. “How can we ask these warriors to train to the absolute highest standard, if we confirm a guy who is asking us to lower the standard to make him Secretary of Defense? The very idea that Pete Hegseth is the person to lead our heroes is an insult to the troops who sacrifice so much for the rest of us.” (Watch below.)
Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault, Henry VIII-level infidelity, and showing up drunk at work. His Republican defenders have mostly shrugged and said, “So what?”
“How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night?” Sen. Markwayne Mullin asked Democrats in a powerful moment of true moral depravity. “Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job?”
Jane Mayer at The New Yorker wrote about the “pressure campaign” to confirm Hegseth, which includes intimidating witnesses and suppressing his FBI background check. This is all typical Trump-style tactics, and left unchallenged, it gives average Americans the impression that Trump is more effective at advancing his agenda than your normal, non-gangster Democrat.
So, it wasn’t a surprise that Sen. Joni Ernst folded and announced that she’d vote to confirm Hegseth. Ernst is an Iraq War veteran and rape survivor, so people assumed she might reject an accused rapist who’s argued against women serving in combat. However, Ernst has already supported an adjudicated rapist for president. Both Ernst and the equally feckless Susan Collins refused to meet with Hegseth’s accuser.
I’ve seen it argued that Hegseth is so uniquely terrible that he’s a moving target. If Democrats get lost in the tumbleweeds of his character, they aren’t focusing enough on how fundamentally unqualified he is for the job. Some other political analysts have blasted Democrats for their “uninspired questioning” that failed to “land a decisive blow.”
I’m all for Democrats improving their political strategy, but there is no strategy that can overcome math. Senate Republicans have a majority without a single Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema who might work against them. They’ll confirm Trump’s Legion of Doom Cabinet without even needing JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote. (He’ll serve on doughnut duty for the Cabinet meetings.)
Hegseth’s fashion-forward fascism
Jonathan V. Last is correct that Pete Hegseth is “historically” unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense, but unfortunately the mainstream media is doing its part to rewrite history in real time.
On Tuesday, The New York Times ran the article, “Pete Hegseth Dresses for the Defense,” an appalling puff piece that vastly minimizes what’s at stake. This isn’t an audition for a Broadway national touring company of How Green Is My Hangover?
The author, Vanessa Friedman, is the Times’ fashion director and chief fashion critic, who covers “political image-making and its influences since Bush vs. Gore, including Volodymyr Zelensky and his olive green T-shirt and the appearance (and reappearance) of the white pantsuit.”
We shouldn’t ignore the impact a politician’s carefully crafted image has on how the public receives them, but Friedman doesn’t critically examine Hegseth’s obvious attempt to look somewhat less repulsive. Instead, she sounds like his PR spokesperson.
Mr. Hegseth, who entered to the sort of applause and chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A.” normally reserved for celebrities, wasn’t wearing the National Guard uniform or the dusty boots of his own military service, which he referred to more than once during his testimony (in case anyone was wondering how fluent he was in the shared language of costume), but he was wearing a de facto uniform of the new administration. One just adjacent to the classic Washington uniform and clearly calibrated for what Mr. Hegseth called, in his testimony, “the most important deployment of my life.”
To be specific, he was wearing the now-signature Trump uniform: the bright blue suit, pristine white shirt with spread collar and perfectly knotted red tie, this time with subtle navy stripes, that acts as a Pavlovian allusion to the American flag. The uniform that has been adopted by Trump acolytes like Vice President-elect JD Vance. The one that is a sign of allegiance not only to the country but to Mr. Trump himself.
Friedman is just part of a larger problem in legacy media, which actively normalizes Trump’s fascist cult of personality.
“His hair was gelled back without a strand out of place,” she writes. “During the occasional interruptions from the crowd, his jaw was heroically clenched.”
This appeared in the supposed “paper of record,” not one of those adult magazines that comes with a complimentary pack of Kleenex. Friedman is hardly a “modern-day Gore Vidal.”
And it gets worse:
Certainly he did not look like the hard-drinking, adulterous, budget-mismanaging person that critics of his nomination had described. He looked clean-cut, not politically correct but patriotically correct. How could anyone doubt his love for his country or his standards? He was wearing them on his back.
It’s very easy to doubt Hegseth’s patriotism. He’s trashed the U.S. military on baseless political grounds. He dismissed the heroic efforts of women who serve in his 2024 book The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. (It’s not just men, certainly not the once and future commander in chief.) He claimed that “women cannot physically meet the same standards as men.”
“Dads push us to take risks,” he said. “Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units.”
There are no training wheels on Tammy Duckworth’s wheelchair.
Hegseth won’t even commit to placing his country and the Constitution above Donald Trump. When Sen. Mazie Hirono asked him if he’d carry out an unlawful order from Trump to shoot civilian protestors in the legs, Hegseth gave the sort of rambling non-answer that clearly means “yes.”
Friedman should understand that Hegseth’s hollow patriotism is an all act. He’s a performer playing a part, not just on Fox News and other right-coded media but also during these confirmation hearings. Like Little Red Riding Hood, Friedman fails to identify the true predator underneath his costume.
Yesterday, Duckworth expressed her disappointment that Republicans are willing to confirm this barely sentient slime trail.
“Brave Republicans who would stand up to Trump have gone,” she said, presumably referring to characters from The West Wing. “They’re no longer in the Senate, and the ones that are left are scared for their lives. I would hope that my colleagues would put the safety and security of the nation above their own political survival.”
Of course, that is something Republicans will never do. They’ll just sit back and watch while Trump’s wolves gnaw on democracy’s bones.
Ugh! That NYT piece confirms that this maga can't make his own fashion choices, just like Vance and the others. They all dress alike - like the traitor. They are just as ugly on the inside as on the outside, just like the traitor. And that bit about his greasy hair, oh wait, it's not greasy, it's neat. Maybe it's having been a teenager in the 1970s, but I prefer the natural look, even a little messy to helmet head hair. BTW, I am going on what you wrote about the piece, because I don't want to give the NYT any clicks.
"I would hope that my colleagues would put the safety and security of the nation above their own political survival.”
Sorry, Senator Duckworth, but the broligarchy has threatened any senator not sufficiently cowed to do Fuckface's bidding will be primaried. Money is speech and speech is power. The vote is guaranteed.