Despite being embattled by numerous controversies, including those pesky Geneva Convention issues in the Caribbean as well as security leaks that put national security at risk, Pete Hegseth spent Saturday afternoon at the Reagan Defense Forum giving an inflammatory speech that essentially amounted to this message: American imperialism is back in full force, baby. And this time, it’s personal.
You might think that’s hyperbole, but let me disabuse you of that notion with a direct quote from the man himself. Mustering all the bravado we’ve come to expect from the administration’s so-called Secretary of War, Hegseth declared: “Out with idealistic utopianism, in with hard-nosed realism.”
And that’s not all. Democracy? Passé. Nation-building? So 2003. Climate change? More like woke moralizing. This is the time to return to those good old conservative morals. You know, back when the United States apparently pursued a policy of “shoot first, ask questions later,” or in Hegseth’s particular case, shoot first, then shoot again to kill the survivors.
The DefSec claimed that the U.S. should not be “distracted by democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing, and feckless nation-building. We will instead put our nation’s practical, concrete interests first.”
But of course, the real fireworks came when Hegseth addressed the elephant in the room by once again doubling down on the September 2 double-tap strike. “If you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you, and we will sink you,” he said, referring to the brutal campaign that has already killed at least 86 people and prompted bipartisan horror and scrutiny in Congress and around the world.
It looks like Hegseth’s strategy is now to go all in and hope that his devotion to Trump will save him from the political gallows that have claimed many a daring, ambitious young man before. And yet, despite Trump doing his usual public loyalty dance and defending Hegseth any chance he gets, the president has allegedly stopped pushing back when his inner circle suggests Hegseth might not be up for the job. Per a new report by The Atlantic, even lawmakers from the GOP are “waking up to the problems the defense secretary has created,” and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the president.
The math is simple enough to do. Trump is getting tired of the never-ending scandals, Republicans are getting squeamish about the body count, and the only reason Hegseth still has a job is due to his unwavering loyalty to Trump, which, knowing the president, actually goes a long way in securing his future. For my two cents, I’ve already seen how this movie ends, and it always involves a presidential pardon.
Published: Dec 7, 2025 02:10 pm