Sometimes it’s easy to tell when someone is in over their heads.
Alarm bells went off when Donald Trump picked a Fox News co-host with no Pentagon experience to lead the Defense Department.
It wasn’t just Pete Hegseth’s lack of experience that was the problem. Hegseth was known more for his rumors of alcohol problems and abuse of women than for his technical or administrative skills.
Putting someone like Pete Hegseth in charge of the US military seemed like a problem waiting to happen, because if Donald Trump inevitably went to the Secretary of Defense with one of his ill-conceived ideas, Pete Hegseth would lack the knowledge, experience and independence to point out the drawbacks to this president.
Hegseth was exactly what Donald Trump wanted, and the Defense Secretary’s war briefings expose the consequences of Trump’s choice.
On Thursday, Hegseth held another press conference about the war with Iran, but it went off the rails.
Hegseth resumed his attacks on the free press. The Secretary of Defense claimed that the press has something called Trump Derangement Syndrome, which doesn’t really exist.
Sec. Hegseth said:
I stand here today and speak to you, the American people, not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news. A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing. We know this right now: to downplay progress and magnify all costs. And question every step.
Unfortunately, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail. But you, the American people, know better. Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today. It’s you, the good, decent, patriotic American people. You, the hardworking taxpayer. God-fearing American patriots. The media here, and not all of the media, but a large part of it, wants you, just 19 days into this conflict, to think that we are somehow spiraling toward an endless abyss, an eternal war, or a swamp.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Hegseth also demanded that US allies thank Trump for starting a war they did not want.
The story continues below.
