FOX anchor Pete Hegseth and meteorologist Janice Dean are on stage as Phil Vassar performs on “FOX & Friends” All-American Summer Concert Series on July 19, 2019, in New York City. | Source: John Lamparski / Getty
Trump supporters will always claim non-Trump supporters are being hyperbolic when we express our doom and gloom attitudes regarding the incoming administration, but in the week since Trump was named president-elect, he has announced as his chief of staff a white woman who views Black and brown voters as political checkmarks and nothing more; he has appointed as his “border czar” an ex-ICE director who is also an ex-cop and a Project 2025 contributor who denied systemic racism and advocates for keeping immigrant families together by deporting them all; and he has essentially promised reparations to Caucasian DEI ‘victims’ while doubling down on his promise to dismantle the Department of Education.
Now, Trump has proposed that, under his new administration, Lloyd Austin, a Black accomplished four-star general should be replaced as secretary of defense by — *checks notes* — a Fox News pundit who was in the Army National Guard.
Meet Pete Hegseth.
According to NPR, Hegseth, who is most known for being one of the MAGA-fied bobbleheads who hosts Fox & Friends, was nominated for secretary of defense by Trump, who described him as “tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump said.
Here’s a little background on Hegseth’s military and political experience via NPR:
Hegseth is a veteran of the Army National Guard, where he did tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay as an infantry officer. During his military service, he was awarded two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman Badge.
Hegseth ran a short-lived Senate campaign in his home state of Minnesota in 2012, before dropping out. He was also CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a veteran advocacy organization, prior to joining Fox News as a contributor in 2014. At the network, he has helmed several programs, most notably hosting “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Pentagon officials and others in Washington are already stunned that Trump would nominate an inexperienced National Guard officer who is “untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military,” according to the Associated Press. But, come on, y’all, Hegseth is a white man, and, as we all know, in MAGA America, you only question one’s qualifications and experience when it’s one of those demonstrably experienced and qualified “DEI hire” Black women like Kamala Harris, who, according to Trumps supporters, wasn’t qualified to be president despite having decades of experience in two out of three branches of government.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Department of State in Washington D.C., on October 31, 2024. | Source: Anadolu / Getty
It’s obvious that, like Trump, Hegseth wasn’t nominated because of his qualifications, but because of his ideology.
From AP:
The news was met with bewilderment and worry among many in Washington as Trump passed on a number of established national security heavy-hitters and chose an Army National Guard officer well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
While some Republican lawmakers had a muted response to the announcement, others called his combat experience an asset or said he was “tremendously capable.”
Hegseth’s choice could bring sweeping changes to the military. He has made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is opposed to “woke” programs that promote equity and inclusion. He also has questioned the role of women in combat and advocated pardoning service members charged with war crimes.
In June, at a rally in Las Vegas, Trump encouraged his supporters to buy Hegseth’s book and said that if he won the presidency, “The woke stuff will be gone within a period of 24 hours. I can tell you.”
So, the next president of the United States will be, for the second time, the host of The Apprentice, and his secretary of defense, if voted in by Congress, will be a Fox News host and contributor who was really only selected to help Trump propagandize the ubiquitous thing white conservatives refer to as “woke.”
But this is making America great, right?
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