r/politics • u/jediporcupine Maine • 6h ago
No Paywall Pete Hegseth is a dangerous failure
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5980903-hegseth-iran-war-failure/•
u/Outrageous_Space8083 Georgia 6h ago
So is Trump and his entire administration.
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u/Murderface__ New York 4h ago
Failed all the way to the top. But it's DEI that's the problem.
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u/karmavorous Kentucky 4h ago
America has really gone to shit since we started electing white male presidents again.
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u/ParkingOptimal6308 1h ago
I agree. I am white and Obama is the most intelligent leaders of my lifetime. Clinton is second.
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u/Outrageous_Space8083 Georgia 4h ago
I mean, what do you expect from a major that only served in the national guard?
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u/inthekeyofc 3h ago
Could be talking about Hegseth.
Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
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u/sjbennett85 1h ago edited 47m ago
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
I quote this OFTEN... this was the first book I read where I laughed out loud crying and it was when I was on a public bus lol
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u/Callan126 3h ago edited 3h ago
Facts. I ran a comparison through Claude between his qualification and previous SECDEF’s and he possesses 10-20% the experience possessed by previous officials who led the organization. That’s a MASSIVE gap in qualifications. I wouldn’t even call him a DEI cause it misrepresents what the DEI initiative was all about and legitimized the conservatives attempt to distort it. DEI was to discourage biased hiring based on “who fits the culture”. It was never about prioritizing lower qualification standards but prioritizing qualifications and discouraging judgements based on company social culture.
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u/DangerousCap7973 3h ago
Trump did not select any of his cabinet on the basis of their competence. They had to be able to lick his a** and tell him how powerful and manly he is at the same time. The amount of people willing to do this is what I find disturbing.
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u/JohnGillnitz 3h ago
DEI is just anything they don't like. Like critical race theory. They don't know what it means, so it becomes a catch all for things they don't understand, but hate anyway.
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u/Callan126 2h ago
Yeah it shows a strong anti-intellectual current inside the movement toward anything that supports the contrary to their cherished beliefs about everything.
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u/ParkingOptimal6308 1h ago
Scary. I hate Trump and all his cronies. What an embarrassment to our country.
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u/adorablefuzzykitten 2h ago
Hegseth is on hormone replacement treatments. Means his tiny brain and his tiny balls are the same size.
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u/somethingelse9980 2h ago
Amazing how many mediocre white men have to fail first so they can blame minorities.
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u/EddieVanzetti 4h ago
So are the 77 million who voted for him.
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u/thegoodnamesrgone123 3h ago
And the 76 million who still would vote for him.
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u/GrandAholeio 3h ago
This^.
Trump and his grifter cabal isn’t the problem. 36% of USA adults still approve of his actions of the last 18 months.
Look around 1 in 3 adults thinks what has been happening is good.
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u/sump_daddy 2h ago
And the 85 million who sat on their ass because 'why bother voting against him, both sides are the same'
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u/sump_daddy 2h ago
This is The Hill reporting, we have to start small, they would collapse if they made a claim so obvious
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u/fountain20 5h ago
This is what you get when you let a host of fox and friends of over ten years to run the Pentagon. You get yes men and liars.
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u/ScoutsterReturns 3h ago
It's amazing they rant about DEI and then this guy is in charge of the military. Governance is just a bad skit with these clowns.
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u/2hype2wype 1h ago
Look at the head of the FBI who was *shuffles papers and checks notes* ... a podcaster.
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u/OnceInABlueMoon 22m ago
They would rather have unqualified white people running things than qualified minorities
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u/adorablefuzzykitten 2h ago
Both Fox and Trump hired Hegseth for his hair. This is who you get when you hire for hair.
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u/tenebre 5h ago
The guy who basically told the entire world he has low testosterone?
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u/Spimflagon 5h ago
The guy who just told the entire world he's cripplingly insecure about having low testosterone.
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u/tenebre 4h ago
The irony of railing for years against trans soldiers and then advocating gender-affirming care for the entire military is....something...
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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted 1h ago
I seriously feel that he would be a happier fellow with breast implants
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u/PM_THE_REAPER 5h ago
It just took one idiot to ignore the rules and prove how weak the checks and balances truly are. Leading to lunatics having unbridled power over life and death.
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u/m0ngoos3 5h ago
No, it took a coordinated campaign starting with the ousting of Nixon to remove checks and balances, and neuter the media to get to the point where Trump could happen in the first place.
There have been dozens of rich assholes who made it their entire life's work to get where we are today.
We can undo this all, but it will likely take years work.
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u/ScoutsterReturns 3h ago
100%. We let Nixon resign instead of sending him to prison. Then we let the Southern Strategy take hold. Bush v. Gore happened and then in 2016 we made a fatal mistake. I'm 61 and remember when Carter put solar panels up at the White House. When I think where we could be today it really makes me sad.
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u/m0ngoos3 3h ago
Bush v. Gore and the Brooks Brothers Riot were the true tipping point.
Although, impeaching Ford for that pardon of Nixon would have been amazing as well.
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u/ScoutsterReturns 3h ago
You're right, forgot about Brooks Brothers Riot. Agree on Ford as well. So many fucking opportunities.
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u/needlestack 5h ago edited 2h ago
If we couldn’t even prevent it while we had the upper hand I don’t see how we undo it. The people that did all that damage are in control now and they’re not about to relinquish power. The rest of us are frustrated but disorganized and listless. We’ve seen the open dismantling of our country and all we have to show is social media posts. The opposition party is weak. Billionaires are not signing up to reduce their power.
There are solutions but they require things getting much, much worse first.
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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 4h ago
Yeah I mean they had a chance to do something about it, the Supreme Court even gave the presidency blanket immunity, and instead of testing that power to protect the constitution, they punted on the off chance that fascism would just sort of go away
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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 4h ago
It'll only get better if we put forward Democratic Socialists, because they're the only ones who actually want to wield power. Establishment Democrats pretend to care as long as the checks keep coming in.
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u/m0ngoos3 3h ago
Yup, it will take a lot of work, and a complete redistribution of power away from the executive and back to congress, complete with a massive expansion of the House to make concentrating power there much harder as well.
Repeal the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act. That could be done day one, and would also slightly correct the electoral college. Putting both Congress and the Presidency mostly into the hands of the people.
I also want to ditch the Senate, but that's a longer term goal and would take two constitutional amendments, maybe multiple clauses if it's unanimously adopted, but that's unlikely.
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u/PacificTridentGlobel 5h ago
I strongly disagree with the contention he has ever crushed a single rep. I’ve seen those videos. He can’t get the bar all the way up on his bench press and he can’t do a pull-up. I know there is an infinite list of shitty things about him that are more important than this, but since I can’t do anything about him until I vote in November I have to resort to occasional mockery. Sigh.
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u/Thor_2099 4h ago
He's like Mac from Always Sunny but if he was an even bigger dipshit and in the government
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u/PacificTridentGlobel 3h ago
I bet he tells his security detail to conduct ocular pat-downs of everyone that gets near him.
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u/RevolutionaryAd6814 3h ago
It’s a real critique of him, he values performative displays of masculinity over actual fitness. The point of exercise isn’t to show off but to train your body. Vanity reps and half assed pull ups display how little he actually values anything.
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u/-Gramsci- 4h ago
He sprites around like a fairy even just trying to run.
I’m with you, the press shouldn’t lie about this.
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u/rejeremiad 3m ago
The videos are the last reps of long sets where the number is set ridiculously high. Blame Crossfit.
Please vote in NOv
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u/pcpelste 5h ago
No shit the alcoholic FOX news host is fully unsuitable to run the US’s military apparatus.
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u/adorablefuzzykitten 2h ago
You ever know a guy who was married 3 times? Was he anything but a jerk?
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u/icebergslim3000 5h ago
He's the manliest Gay man I've ever seen
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u/SillyMammo 5h ago
Yep! For someone who hates gay people, he sure talks about them continuously.
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u/Signal_Cake5735 3h ago
My hardcore Pentecostal neighbour also likes to go on at extravagant length about how all the gays are going to hell.
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u/Abba_Fiskbullar 2h ago
Does your neighbor say that being gay is a choice? If so, he's a big old gay.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 2h ago
He’s the manliest man whose uncalloused hands have never lifted a shovel in his life.
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u/ThrowRA-James 5h ago
A mediocre man that has hit peak mediocrity. He proves everyday this is the best he can achieve. It’s the reason why he was never given a position of power before. Leadership could see that. He pushed paper like a secretary and I bet he sucked at that too.
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u/Toadfinger 5h ago
Let's be real here: He's a deliberate failure. Ignoring the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the Iran conflict was not any sort of Oops! My bad! This is even worse than the Iraq invasion in 2003. Where is was all about defense contracts and campaign contributions. Now it's that and stock market manipulation.
We've GOT to get the GOP out of office!
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u/Shenanigans99 America 5h ago
He was brought in to weaken our military, and weaken it he has. The head of every federal agency in the Trump regime was hired to wreck their agency. This is an administration bent on dragging our country into chaos. The incompetence is a feature, not a bug.
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u/Toadfinger 5h ago
The head of every federal agency in the Trump regime was hired to wreck their agency.
The results most certainly speak for themselves, don't they? We're being betrayed on every level.
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u/FinalHexReturns 4h ago
I mean, look no farther than Kash Patel.
No other conclusion can be drawn but he was hired because of his incompetence.
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u/DickSlammington 5h ago
He's just another rapey frat boy loser who stumbled into power...
And his actions reflect that.
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u/Deep_Stick8786 5h ago
How the fuck did this guy go to Princeton?
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u/onthedownslope 3h ago
WRONG!!!
Pete was doing just fine being hungover hosting a weekend 'news' show.
The American Voter is a dangerous failure.
The American Voter allowed Chump back into the White House knowing he was 1. Dumb, 2. Dishonest. 3. Motivated ONLY by money and self congratulation.
The American Voter knew he would 1. Be on a Revenge tour. 2. Staff his administration with loyalists.
so....enjoy those high gas prices, the benefits of the tarrifs at the grocery store and keep holding out for those Epstein files.
Congratulations, America, you played yourself ! Keep telling yourself that you are the greatest country in the world.
i apologize for ranting...thanks for listening to me bitch.
I would post my number and take your calls, but I am keeping the line open in case I get a 20 minute phone call from Mitch McConnell.
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u/Brokenrinker 5h ago
Who would have thought that putting an alcoholic, Fox 'news' talking head in charge of the world's largest military would end badly?
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u/RMarch21 5h ago
What did you think was going to happen when you put an infantry officer from the Minnesota national guard in charge of the US military…..a weekend warrior not qualified, that sports a crusades tattoo and believes testosterone levels are more important than leadership…..he and his boss have gotten themselves into something with no way out…..
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u/sweatpotato76 4h ago
There’s the pithy two-word phrase I’ve been hunting for to describe this entire…fucking…thing…we’ve been dealing with since 2015. Dangerous failure! That’s what these people and the administration are!
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u/Antknee2099 4h ago
I'm convinced at this point that such failure is a feature, not a bug; Trump uses these sycophantic, entirely unprepared and underqualified people to sow chaos and continually keep the attention away from his money-grab. The man has made billions of dollars in less than 2 years directly from his presidency and is continually looking for other ways to sell out the American people for more profit. Hegseth, Patel, et al are being empowered to keep everyone focused on their massive fuck ups. Once they've hit a point of full failure, they're fired and replaced with another drone to continue the work.
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u/MarcusQuintus 4h ago
No, the Saturday morning TV show host with a drinking problem is performing the job as expected by anyone who isn't paid to believe otherwise.
The real failure is the senate for confirming him and the American people for voting in those senators in the first place.
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u/Callan126 4h ago
The military is traditionally a data driven organization. If you noticed both the mandate for mandatory testosterone testing and removing the rank from chaplains has ZERO data or study to justify said changes. The motivations seem very personal and biased.
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u/married2thekitchen 3h ago
Well no shit. It’s amazing what happens when you appoint incompetent and unqualified people to positions of power. I feel like it’s common sense.
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u/Narrow_Order1257 5h ago
Think Frank Burns from MASH. Same rank, but kegsbreath is way more incompetent.
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u/Flashy-Read-9417 4h ago
Sky is blue ahh title to an opinion piece. This is 'journalism' in 2026
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u/Slow_Investment_2211 4h ago
Who would have thought an alcoholic Fox News host would be a bad pick? 🫤
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u/UndeadT Georgia 4h ago
I'd say he's very successful. We need to stop acting like these people aren't getting exactly what they want.
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u/SmileRemarkable8876 39m ago
Even these morons wouldn't want the Iran war to be going the way it has.
At the same time they don't care that much about anything because their leader lives in a reality free world where he can explain away anything and the MAGA crowd will believe him.
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u/randomcanyon 4h ago
Well that is to be expected when you get a drunk bro running things for a Felon President.
See also FBI, and Health.
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u/_-Moonsabie-_ 4h ago
A obligatory dangerous failure remember Trump is responsible for 40% of the total national debt
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u/Boring_Ruin_9388 4h ago
He needs to be impeached and reform needs to be done. The president shouldn't pick his cabinet, the people should. Its crazy how much congressional power the repubes are happy to give away.
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u/No-Philosopher3248 4h ago
Meanwhile, Whiskey Pete thinks he’s a brilliant strategist and administrator.
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u/AandWKyle 2h ago
Who would have thought a TV personality would be bad at running an entire branch of government
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u/Correct_Note_AI 2h ago
guy still has a security clearance after all this, that alone tells you the system is beyond repair. a normal boss would've fired him 10 scandals ago
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u/PickleMortyCoDm 2h ago
A fox news anchor at the head of the department of defense is dangerous? No way/s
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u/MrPantsyFlants 2h ago
Pete is obscenely incompetent in one of the posts that requires actual excellence to do well. He is currently, the greatest danger to US servicemembers.
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u/Lily_foxx_sakura 2h ago
He is so dumb like maga elected a clown and were running whole circus show for the world to see
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u/GW_Jefferson 1h ago
You mean the Fox and Friends Weekend TV host running the entire Department of Defense of the United States of America....nah...
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u/Public-Significance7 1h ago
How would a former NG Major ever know how to run an organization the size of DoD with zero relevant experience? The man has zero budget execution or logistics experience of any kind, and he certainly does not know how to coordinate joint service operations or joint operations requiring coordination with other countries military services either. And he's basically going around firing the smartest guys in the room, namely the GOs he's been shitcanning lately. So glad he could fake his way through this Iran thing while depleting the very ADA munitions we would have used for a war with a near-peer like China one day and giving away the rest to Ukraine. If you are not very worried- you should be!
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u/ParkingOptimal6308 1h ago
Undoubtedly, this is what you get from someone who was a FOX News reporter.
Lies, lies, oh, and more lies.
This JA sees my four children on active duty as expendable. If anything happens to any of my children you may see me in the news.
I am that angry and I hate this man. I hate Trump. I dislike his gold digger wife.
I found something good all previous Presidents have done regardless of party. Not this moron President we have now. Nada. Nothing.
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u/rounder55 1h ago
Who could have predicted someone as unqualified as Pete Hegseth would demonstrate how unqualified he is?
The problem is too much of America is fine with their senators voting yay on hiring Hegseth to the point they keep re-electing them
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u/Flat-Complaint-5131 53m ago
Like Trump, he is dangerous because he operates in a world of cowards.
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u/Pepaguero 47m ago
Hegseth has wrecked every organization he’s run. Bankrupted them all. Now he’s doing it to the dept of defense. He needs to be removed ASAP
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u/gnanny02 42m ago
I have never actually Fox News so I don't know if they do have a weatherman, but I think we would have been much better off of that person were selected of this job.
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u/To-Far-Away-Times 8m ago
Pedo Pete preyed on 150 elementary school girls in Iran in the opening strike in Trump’s war of choice.
And that story didn’t even lead the news every minute of every day.
He should have immediately been tackled, arrested, and arraigned for criminal trial.
After the low morality War on Iraq years we absolutely had to make it known that war crimes would never be normalized or celebrated and that accountability matters above all.
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