When You Hire Morons
The demise of Pete Hegseth was always a foregone conclusion, but only if you exist outside of the MAGA bubble.
by Ben Cohen
If you haven’t been caught up in the Trump cult, don’t think tax breaks are more important than democracy, and don’t believe an anti-woke “vibe shift” exonerates Trump from trying to overthrow the 2020 election, it is quite easy to see what is going in in the White House.
Contrary to Fox New messaging and an army of Elon Musk bros on X, all is not well in Trumpland. The economy is teetering on the edge of a recession, businesses across the country are panicking about the insane tariffs, and Trump’s A-Team of conspiracy theorists, alcoholics and sociopathic billionaires is falling apart in real time.
Here’s how the New York Times reported on the crumbling facade:
In recent weeks, the veneer of a more disciplined White House has begun to crack.
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared sensitive military information in not one, but two Signal group chats. The I.R.S. has had three different leaders in the span of a single week. A Salvadoran man living in Maryland was deported because of an “administrative error.” And, in yet another misstep, administration officials kicked off a war of threats with Harvard University by sending a letter to the school prematurely, two people familiar with the matter said.
While the chaos has not reached the first Trump administration’s levels, the mistakes, miscommunications and flip-flops have started piling up after an early run defined by a flood of major policy changes at breakneck speed.
This on top of a crumbling economy, Trump’s ever-shifting tariff policies that no one — including his own staff — seems to understand, and Oval Office meetings with fringe conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer, who’s now helping dictate the administration’s internal purges.
But the focus of this piece is the extraordinary case of incompetence at the Pentagon involving former Fox News presenter — and now Defense Secretary — Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth is facing renewed scrutiny over his handling of military intelligence, after reports surfaced that he circulated sensitive information about U.S. operations in Yemen via a private Signal thread that included his wife, brother, and lawyer. Hegseth reportedly used his personal phone to share real-time details of planned airstrikes on Houthi targets—timing that, if exposed, could have put American pilots at risk. A senior official familiar with the matter confirmed the March breach, noting it coincided with a separate incident in which Hegseth relayed similar information to White House staff in another chat that accidentally included Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
What was Hegseth’s explanation? Here’s what he told reporters at the White House Easter Egg Roll:
“They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me, because we're changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn't matter.”
In other words, I did it, but the Deep State is out to get me so look the other way.
For sober observers of Donald Trump’s presidencies, this rapid implosion is a feature, not a bug. Hegseth’s demise was a foregone conclusion when he was sworn in, the bets were only on how long it would take for him to self-destruct. It turns out, about three months.
Pete Hegseth never had any business running the world’s most powerful military. Consider the following:
No command experience: Hegseth never held high-level military leadership. His service in the National Guard and tours in Iraq and Afghanistan are commendable but nowhere near the experience needed to run the Pentagon. He has skipped every rung of relevant expertise in between.
Fox News propaganda gig, not policy expertise: Hegseth’s real qualification was being a loyalist on Fox & Friends. His job wasn’t to lead or manage—it was to flatter Trump, rail against “wokeness,” and deliver anti-intellectual rants on morning television.
Serial ethics issues: Hegseth has been credibly accused of sexual assault, and paid an alleged victim $50,000 as part of a settlement to keep quiet.
Fired from two nonprofits for mismanagement: Before his Fox career, Hegseth was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), a Koch-backed veterans’ group. He left after colleagues accused him of “frequent public intoxication, poor leadership and the toxic work climate”.
Open contempt for experts: Hegseth has long mocked Pentagon officials, intelligence professionals, and career civil servants as “deep state hacks.” His answer to every strategic challenge is a soundbite about “kicking ass,” not actual policy.
Reckless with classified information: The Yemen leaks aren’t a one-off. They are now part of a pattern of extraordinarily reckless behavior.
Loyalty over competence: His entire career trajectory under Trump is a case study in authoritarian reward systems. He didn’t get the job because he was the best. He got it because he would never say no.
Let’s be clear: Hegseth isn’t running the Pentagon. He’s performing it — for a media-obsessed boss who thinks loyalty matters more than judgment, and optics matter more than outcome.
Hegseth has been in his role for barely three months, and he’s already leaked classified war plans, mistakenly included a journalist in a live ops thread, and blamed the fallout on imaginary enemies inside the government.
This is what happens when you hand serious jobs to unserious people. Pete Hegseth isn’t just unqualified — he’s a security risk who can’t even manage a group chat.
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It baffles me and makes me furious that all former high office Government Officials
Think: (Presidents, Sec of State, Vice Presidents, Senators, Speakers of the House, Senate Pro Tempore, Secs of Treasury and Defense, Attorney Generals, Heads of State, Ambassadors, Generals, Admirals) why aren't they all protesting and screaming from the rooftops that this is Treason? If those once very powerful people would take distinct action as a large group to stop this insanity, we may have some hope. As it is, the 'little ' people protesting on the streets won't make any change. BIG, LARGE, POWERFUL, RICH, FORMER FOLKS WHO ALL SWORE TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION NEED TO SPEAK UP AND ACT OUT!!
The Trump Playbook is to rotate cabinet members like rotting vegetables in and out of the display case. Hegseth, Noem, Oz, they'll all be turfed and replaced. The one that keeps me up at night is Musk, who will sneak back to the shadows and begin a billion dollar PR campaign to breathe life into Tesla, but the media and the judicial system (what's left of it) need to NEVER forget that he accessed and stole the most sensitive data on the planet. The personal, SS, credit, and banking information (plus I imagine legal records) of every single person in the country. The most valuable data tech companies could ever dream of. And he has it to use, deploy, and weaponize as he sees fit. I can see Elon and his minions blackmailing future administrations or sworn enemies for generations. No government contract for Elon, he shuts down our entire communications and banking system. Turns off energy grids. Commits super targeted or wide-scale identity theft, fraud, and blackmail. Forces individual consumers to "buy a Tesla or else".