Recall that the week began with news that the US secretary of defense had been involved in a second Signal chat in which he shared the same war plans he shared in the first one. This time, Pete Hegseth set up the chat himself and included his wife, his brother and his attorney. Oh, and he used his own phone, not the government’s.
Last weekend, in an opinion piece for Politico, a former Pentagon spokesman warned that “there are very likely more shoes to drop in short order, with even bigger bombshell stories coming this week.”
And lo, a voice came:
Wall Street Journal: “Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon”;
Associated Press: “Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal”;
Times: “Hegseth’s Personal Phone Use Created Vulnerabilities”;
National Public Radio: “Former Pentagon official on Hegseth turmoil: ‘It looks like they actually broke the law’”;
CBS: “Hegseth orders makeup studio installed at Pentagon.”
Unfortunately, we are where we were at the beginning of the week. Hegseth isn’t going anywhere. Yes, he is “embattled,” as we say in the news, but every story about him says that Donald Trump has his back.
The closest we’ve come to accountability was in the Journal: “Trump has begun to ask people around him about Hegseth’s performance, and his advisers have closely watched his recent media appearances.”
Until he’s gone, there’s going to be lots more to say about Hegseth. I want to focus on an aspect about him and the maga movement that can be found in the opening scene from the Journal article above.
In it, he reacts after being “rattled” by the fact that someone had leaked word of his classified briefing on China with Elon Musk.
“I’ll hook you up to a f—ing polygraph!” Hegseth shouted at Adm. Christopher Grady, the then-acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to two people familiar with the exchange. Hegseth demanded proof that Grady hadn’t leaked news of the March 21 briefing.
Grady was never subjected to a polygraph, and Hegseth would go on to accuse a number of other people for the leak, including Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, the Joint Staff director, whom Hegseth also threatened with a polygraph test.
I mean, I get it.
The secretary of defense is America’s highest ranking military official. In theory, Hegseth can talk to anyone at the Pentagon in any way he wants to, no matter how accomplished they are, no matter how much older they are. But we’re not talking about what you can do. We’re talking about what you should do among men of honor and distinction.
And there’s your problem.
Admiral Grady’s resume is so deep and long, and so full of achievement and military jargon, that it would be almost discourteous of me to copy and paste excerpts of it. (You can find his bio here, courtesy of Bill Grueskin.) He has seen some things and done some things, with the ultimate cost of failure being that someone under him could have died.
Meanwhile, Hegseth’s resume for the job is nearly as thin as mine.
He’s a 44-year-old former TV personality with a drinking problem and a history of indiscretion with women, shall we say, as well as no experience running anything of size, much less the planet’s biggest bureaucracy. Since taking the job, he has compromised national security, broken dozens of laws, conduct that would get anyone else at the Pentagon court-martialed if he were not Donald Trump’s No. 1 yes-man, and on top of all this, he feels justified in throwing fit with a man who was answering the call of duty when he was still in diapers.
Again, Hegseth has the right to say what he wants to Admiral Grady. He outranks him. No doubt Grady accepts that. But no man of honor would cuss out an admiral out, question his honesty, doubt his loyalty, impugn his character – and do it in front of witnesses, for God’s sake.
But if we leave it there, we’re missing the larger picture.
Hegseth’s dishonorable conduct is shared by the whole regime, including the president. There’s an attitude that respect is owed but not in return. This is borne of the belief that they have the right to rule by race and blood – not by law, not by merit, not by anything other than the accident of their birth. Indeed, anyone who has earned his authority, as Admiral Grady has, is a natural target of their contempt.
This attitude may seem invulnerable, but it’s not. It is weakness personified. When respect is not forthcoming in the way they expect, they fall to pieces. They get emotional, perhaps hysterical. They might even start accusing everyone around them of being against them. As it happens, that describes Hegseth to a T. NBC News reported Friday that he’s growing paranoid, “erratic” and “insecure.” When you act like you’re infallible, you can’t stand it when anyone anywhere disagrees.
If this sounds childish, it is, and there’s a reason for it. It is rooted in the political tradition of venerating above all others the common folk of the American heartland, which is to say, the common white folk. Unlike multiracial populations in cities or on the coasts, people get educations, acquire skill and knowledge, and strive, these are God’s chosen. They are the most authentic, the most real of Americans.
And one way or another, they are always at the center of our time and our attention, as they are the main characters in tales of morality told about America, in which some kind of great sinner is forever trying to take advantage of them, cheat them out of their money and their hope, and these crimes against the blood and bone of the nation demand a champion to come forth and save God’s chosen from this villainy.
They are pure and innocent and just. They never do wrong, they are only wronged, because they are not asked to make choices. Choices are made for them as a consequence of being God’s chosen, which is to say, of being white in a country that was made for white people.
It should be no surprise that men like the secretary of state, or the president, who believe they have the right to rule by race and blood, not by law, not by merit, not by anything other than the accident of their birth, are also some of the most childish people. They inhibit a world in which they never had to grow up. They can be boys forever.
And when man-babies like Pete Hegseth encounter someone who did grow up, who did make something of himself through merit and hard work and determination – when they encounter men of honor like Admiral Christopher Grady – they seem to explode on contact.
For that small justice, I’m grateful.
