Secretary Of Defense Pete Hegseth

On January 27, shortly after Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Secretary of Defense, the “New York Times” published the following letter:

“To the Editor: To those Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense (and Vice President JD Vance, who broke a 50-50 tie): Unfortunately, you are far from the first members of the U.S. Senate to disgrace themselves through cowardice. But you have done so in historic terms. By confirming such a wildly unfit nominee and ignorant hatchet man as Mr. Hegseth, you, who trumpet belief in America’s greatness, have actually just severely weakened the United States and greatly endangered your constituents. Tom Wolfson, Washington.”

It didn’t take any special insight to write those words. But Hegseth’s entire performance in office bears them out in spades. He is dangerous to America. He was installed only to be a vicious toady for Trump; no one in the Administration was interested in whether he was a suitable nominee. The Senate vote to approve him expressed the lowest possible level of confidence without actually rejecting someone. (This was not a party-line vote; two Republicans joined Democrats in voting no.) He has no qualifications for managing one of the world’s largest organizations, with a budget of hundreds of billions. (His only small-scale managerial performance, in fact, was so poor that he was fired.) There have been so many reports of chaos inside the Pentagon on his watch that it is very likely the truth is worse. His ignorant and bigoted belief that only white male officers are fit for command is short-sighted and self-defeating, as well as wrong. His astoundingly careless mishandling of classified information (which in the “Signalgate” episode particularly dealt with imminent military operations), would subject any other offender to Federal prosecution and quite possibly significant jail time. His unrepentant excuses after “Signalgate” are just as frightening for the future. Reports of his previous problems with drinking and extramarital affairs do not suggest that any strength of character might outweigh his shortcomings.

There is also ample cause to be skeptical of his judgment, given his support for soldiers court-martialed and convicted of war crimes (see “Time” magazine, Hegseth’s Role in Trump’s Pardons of Men Accused of War Crimes | TIME). The story was published November 13, 2024, shortly after the President-elect announced his intention to nominate Hegseth. More recently, Hegseth reached the reprehensible decision to reaffirm twenty Medals of Honor (the nation’s highest military award for valor in combat) to participants in the 1890 massacre of 230 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. (A recent post by Boston College history professor Richardson recounts the episode’s sorry history. September 26, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson).

Hegseth’s sudden summons to Quantico, Virginia, of hundreds of senior commanders and enlisted personnel from around the world is odd and irresponsible. The “Washington Post” reported September 28 that “It is estimated that the cost of flying, lodging and transporting all of the military leaders — some of whom will be traveling from the Middle East, Europe and the Indo-Pacific — will be in the millions of dollars. The event has also raised security concerns about having all the top leadership in one place, particularly given that Tuesday is the end of the fiscal year, and, if the government shuts down, it could leave key personnel stranded from their units.” Whatever Hegseth’s purpose, and it is not hard to see him luxuriating in the simple power to issue such an edict, he is at a minimum distracting these officers from their duties. This despite actual international military threats such as Russian fighter aircraft violations of NATO airspace, Chinese pressure on Taiwan and aggressive actions in the South China Sea, continuing Iranian potential to acquire nuclear weapons, and worrying expansion of adversaries’ influence in the Arctic, Africa, and elsewhere.

With Trump now planning to take part in the meeting, Hegseth’s apparent plans to lecture on “lethality” and “warfighting” will be overshadowed by Trump’s clear intent, most recently demonstrated in Portland, Oregon, foolishly and illegally to deploy repressive military force within the United States. There is no reason to think that Hegseth will not be a willing, even enthusiastic, tool supporting Trump’s moves.

Hegseth’s use of the term “warfighting” indicates that he represents another long-term danger. He fundamentally misunderstands the proper role of people in uniform, as demonstrated by a November 2019 remark to FOX News, referring to soldiers convicted of war crimes (quoted by “Time” in the article mentioned above): “You train someone to go and fight and kill the enemy, then they kill the enemy the way someone doesn’t like, and then we put them in jail.”

That statement is just stupid and shows that he was even unfit for the small-unit command he held as an Army National Guard major in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers are taught the rules of land warfare in addition to fighting skills, and even in combat there are rules of engagement. Certain things are prohibited, such as killing an enemy combatant who is unarmed and trying to surrender, or recklessly and unnecessarily killing noncombatants. A soldier who violates the Geneva Convention or the rules of engagement is subject to punishment. Soldiers in combat do have to make quick, life-or-death decisions (which is presumably what Hegseth had in mind), but they’re trained to use their brains when doing so, and not just fire away and identify the bodies.

(There’s a reason for all this, in addition to just the fact that it’s the morally right thing to do. If we ignore the rules of warfare, we cannot expect an adversary to obey them when it comes to our troops. In a situation where there is a civilian population, which we want on our side and not the enemy’s, Hegseth’s kind of thinking is sure to cause them to go over to the enemy.)

But even his showy but hollow “boots-on-the-ground” toughness has nothing to do with, and makes it very difficult for him to comprehend, the nature of large-scale geopolitical calculations affecting decisions about graduated, prudent, and strategic use of the military as an instrument of national policy. His cosplay changing his office insignia to “Department of War,” in line with a Trump decision (that nevertheless is illegal and meaningless without Congressional consent), is symbolic in this regard. “Strategy” is a word used to mean many things. Experts refine it this way: a rigorously thought-out determination of one’s goals, objectives along the way, available means, and mechanisms to stay on track despite unanticipated, unintended, and/or negative consequences. Nothing in Hegseth’s record indicates that he has any capacity to deal with such complexity, which is frightening. True, as a FOX News commentator, he was under no obligation to have one. As Secretary of Defense, however, he does: it’s an essential job requirement.

Tom Wolfson is a former senior U.S. diplomat who has lived and worked in six foreign countries, occasionally multiple times. His work representing the U.S. has included assignments at the United Nations, in the U.S. Congress, and with an international democracy-building organization. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 300 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions