Hegseth Hoping His Media Minions Can Smooth His Way to the White House
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth keeps popping up on the campaign trail, fueling speculation he may run for president in 2028. His travel last month to Iowa, “a presidential campaign proving ground, fits that pattern,” the Washington Post (8/17/26) reported, citing an official familiar with Hegseth’s thinking.
Like so much about Hegseth’s tenure as self-styled “secretary of war,” this isn’t normal. “It is highly unusual for a current defense secretary to campaign for candidates,” noted CBS News (8/17/26). “Previous secretaries rarely if ever attended events for candidates while defense secretary.”
Hegseth’s stumping for fellow Republicans has alarmed at least three of his predecessors, who spoke with NBC News (8/28/26). “My God, we’re at war,” said former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. “What are you doing going to Iowa and campaigning when you should be paying attention to your job?”
It’s this very war, with Iran, that may waylay Hegseth’s White House dreams. Unable to change the realities on the ground, Hegseth is taking the next-best approach by trying to change the way the war is reported.
‘Right out of central casting’
Jeet Heer (The Nation, 8/31/26): “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that taxpayer money allocated to the Pentagon was used by the executive branch to influence a congressional election, a direct attack on the principle of keeping the military out of domestic politics.”
Hegseth (like Donald Trump) is living proof that a strong TV persona can compensate for a lack of competence. Understanding this is key to making sense of Hegseth’s otherwise inexplicable tenure as defense secretary.
Amid his years reportedly spent abusing women and alcohol (New Yorker, 12/1/24), Hegseth still managed to appear bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as a co-host on Fox News, where he voiced full-throated support for Trump, as well as for US soldiers accused of war crimes (New Yorker, 11/22/24). Watching the telegenic Hegseth hold forth on his favorite channel, Trump was impressed. (“Right out of central casting,” he later said.)
And now Hegseth—whose thin resume includes being forced to resign from the two veterans organizations he led (New Yorker, 12/1/24)—has failed his way up to defense secretary, with his sights set on the Oval Office. To get there, Hegseth will have to paper over his rocky tenure in office.
Things began on a positive note, with Hegseth successfully installing a TV makeup studio in the Pentagon (CBS, 4/23/25). But when it comes to actual warfighting, Hegseth has proved less capable, accidentally texting a reporter top-secret war plans to bomb Yemen last year (Atlantic, 3/24/25), and suffering a humiliating defeat in Iran this year (New York Times, 8/28/26).
“Losing a war with Iran would tarnish Hegseth politically, but he has developed a simple solution,” wrote Jeet Heer in the Nation (8/31/26):
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Hegseth Hoping His Media Minions Can Smooth His Way to the White House
Unable to change the realities on the ground, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is taking the next-best approach by trying to change the way the war is reported.
fair.org
