As you’ve probably heard by now, Pete Hegseth’s time as defense secretary has not been going great. For starters, there was the matter of Signalgate, wherein confidential war plans were texted to a journalist. Then there was Signalgate 2, wherein the former Fox News host shared the same top secret information with a separate group chat that included his brother and wife. Staffers have been fired (and threatened with prosecution) for alleged leaks, without any evidence to back said accusations. Lie detectors have been rolled out, and then, on orders from the White House, rolled back in.* At one point, Elon Musk was reportedly invited to a meeting to hear about “some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets”; at another, a GOP senator called Hegseth’s leadership “amateurish.”
So yeah, things have not been going swimmingly, and if you need more convincing of just how not-swimmingly they’ve been going, another data point could be the fact that the defense secretary’s own allies have taken to the media to describe what a shit show the last six months have been. “It’s like the crème de la crème of dysfunction,” a person close to Hegseth told Politico. “There’s going to be more shoes to drop all around,” said another. Things have gotten so bad that “a handful of Hegseth allies both inside and outside the Pentagon” are said to be “concerned that the laundry list of scandals could lead to his downfall.”
Hoping to convince him to see the light of day, said allies “have engaged in something of an intervention with the secretary, according to the four people familiar with the discussions.” Some urged him to “make peace with the former employees he ousted and accused of leaking.” Others are said to be trying to get him to publicly apologize. “If there’s any chance at Pete resetting and ensuring that whatever time he has left in this position is well served, he’s got to do it—otherwise Pete is just doubling down on the lie,” a person close to Hegseth told the outlet. To be clear, one usually talks about someone making the best of the time they “have left“ when they’ve only been given a few months left to live, which doesn’t bode great for Hegseth’s job security.
Yet for all the embarrassing screwups, it’s entirely possible that the former TV show host will outlast all his fellow cabinet secretaries because the president thinks he’s good looking and macho. No, really: According to Politico, Donald Trump has “long admired the energy of the handsome, Princeton-educated Hegseth” and appreciates his “‘warrior ethos’ masculinity.” Because of that, the outlet, reports, “Trump doesn’t give a fig about how Hegseth treats his staff, or whether there’s an investigation into his use of Signal and classified documents, said one of the White House officials and three outside allies.”
As one Trump ally put it to Politico: “The boss loves him—so it’s like, ‘We’ll make it work.’”
*In a statement, a Pentagon spokesperson told The Washington Post: “The Department will not comment on an ongoing investigation. The Fake News Media’s obsession with months old workplace gossip is a reflection of the sad and pathetic state of ‘journalism’ in Washington.”
