Mr. Insecurity picks a Fox News host for SecDef
Donald Trump proved critics right again on Tuesday.
All this time I thought one of strongest motivators for Donald (Mr. Insecurity) Trump’s was to get the world to stop “laughing at us” (him). It’s considered one of the reasons he ran for president after sitting through some skillful mocking at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “Saturday Night Live” comedian Seth Meyers and President Obama (Did you know he’s Black?) both roasted Trump as unserious.
“Donald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican — which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke,” Meyers jabbed as Trump sat stone-faced.
“That evening of public abasement, rather than sending Mr. Trump away, accelerated his ferocious efforts to gain stature within the political world,” wrote Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns after the 2016 Super Tuesday primaries. “And it captured the degree to which Mr. Trump’s campaign is driven by a deep yearning sometimes obscured by his bluster and bragging: a desire to be taken seriously.”
I’ll show you (and get even, more than even), Trump thought. Now headed into his second term as president after President Joe Biden’s interregnum, Trump means to show the world just how serious he is.
So Trump on Tuesday announced Pete Hegseth, a “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host, as his next secretary of defense. Hegseth has for years hosted host Fox’s New Year’s coverage. No, seriously.
President-elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday night surprise pick of a conservative commentator and television host as his Pentagon chief shocked Washington, which had expected the nominee to be a seasoned lawmaker or someone with defense policy experience.
National security officials and defense analysts had braced for surprises from Trump after experiencing his first four years in office. But even grading on that curve, they say the announcement of Fox News host and decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth caught them totally off-guard.
“[Trump] puts the highest value on loyalty,” Eric Edelman, who served as the Pentagon’s top policy official during the Bush administration, said in an interview. “It appears that one of the main criteria that’s being used is, how well do people defend Donald Trump on television?”
One assessment was more blunt. “Who the fuck is this guy?” said a defense industry lobbyist who was granted anonymity to offer candid views. The lobbyist said they had hoped for “someone who actually has an extensive background in defense. That would be a good start.”
Yup, that will show ’em. That will stop “them” from laughing at “us.” This guy:
This means you
Jeff Sharlett dove into Hegseth’s book, “War on Warriors,” and found, per the introduction, Sharlet tweets, that Hegseth believes “the military is anti-white, conquered by a ‘diverse’ ‘infection’ intent on breaking the military–which would be treason. Which justifies the self-declared ‘extremism’ of his response.”
Yeah, when Trump orders him to have troops to shoot protesters in the legs, Hegseth would only ask, “How many times?”
Politico:
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, expressed concern that Hegseth doesn’t have the experience to tackle the Pentagon bureaucracy.
“I confess I didn’t know who he was until 20 minutes ago,” Smith told reporters. “And he certainly doesn’t seem to have any background whatsoever in DOD policy.”
He also said he’s concerned about a Pentagon chief without extensive relationships with allies at a time when the U.S. has “a lot of irons in the fire” in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
“I see no evidence that this person has relationships whatsoever with our overseas partners,” Smith said. “How is he going to do when working on the various coalitions that we have?”
Trump doesn’t care so long as Hegseth’s lips are firmly attached to his ass.
Christmas just came early for Moscow, Pyongyang, and Beijing.
[Sorry, server maintenance delayed the post this morning.]