Defense/War Secretary Pete Hegseth
Courtesy of Wikipedia
In addition to my annual man of the year and jackass of the year tongue-in-cheek blog awards, I developed a contrasting (to the latter) bad elephant of the year over GOP politicians behaving badly; after all, corrupt or incompetent political whores exist on either side of the partisan divide. Now, to be honest, Trump, a past "winner", should probably sweep the award for every year in politics; this year alone, he has roiled global trade by escalating tariffs against every trading partner, he has largely pardoned nearly every J6 criminal, including those who violently attacked police, he has fired IGs without due cause and without Congressional notice as required by law and has attempted to do the same to a Frederal Reserve governor, he has closed press access to organizations who continue referencing to the historical, internationally recognized name of the Gulf of Mexico, he has used the Justice Deprtment to go after his political targets like Comey and Letitia James, he threatens networks' broadcast licenses. he threw a foreign president (Zelensky) out of the White House in an unprovoked temper tantrum, and he routinely rudely, unprofessionally, and without provocation insults people, especially reporters, with insults like "piggy" and "stupid". I could go on with dozens of other examples, but the reader probably sees the pattern of behavior. I am fed up with his boring litany of lies and fake accomplishments, his irritation and chutzpah over not being named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize while blowing up civilian boats and threatening military action against Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia, none a military threat to the US, flirting with annexing Canada and Greenland, and expanding undeclared drone wars overseas. Via Google AI:
If anything, Trump would probably get a perceived thrill from my naming him again. He loves the attention and would probably use it to "prove" his victimhood. As a libertarian, I have had zero tolerance for Trump, who had no tolerance for the constitutionally limited role as POTUS; he had no public sector experience, no expertise in policy. He seemed principally dedicated to his own power and glory, putting personal loyalty above constitutional principle. He was not focused on my ideals of fiscal conservativism, free markets and free trade, open migration, sound money, individual rights, the rule of law, a balance of power in government, non-interventionism, and the principles of federalism and subsidiarity.
I have particular contempt for Trumpkins who knowingly serve under Trump. Xenophobe Stephen Miller, whom I nickname Trump's Secretary of Evil, immediately comes to mind. VP Vance had manipulated that Trumper tantrum at Zelensky's expense in the White House. Navarro is probably the most influential of the disastrous Trumpist protectionism. But for this award, I narrowed the list of contenders to 3: AG "Blondie Bondi", in charge of Trump's weaponized Justice Department, Lindsey Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer without federal prosecutor experience, who was dubiously appointed as interim prosecutor to (unsuccessfully) go after Trump's vengeful prosecutions of Comey and James.
I opposed Hegseth's nomination from the get-go. He had no senior military leadership exposure, defense policy expertise, or public sector leadership experience when being asked to manage one of the largest departments in the federal government. He seems to have focused primarily on political priorities, like the Trumpist target of DEI, reverting the name of Ft. Bragg (technically, not the Confederate Bragg), rehiring veterans who left the service rather than take COVID shots, etc. But 2 principal incidents underscore why I selected Hegseth: (1) Hegseth transmitted operational details about a Houthi military operation on an unsecure Signal channel, putting the mission at risk, recently the target of a Pentagon IG report; (2) Hegseth's "leave no survivors" order on a suspected civilian vessel alleged to be carrying drugs near the Venezuelan coast, which I and others believe to have been a war crime.
