In my ongoing quest to rank the most dangerous people in America, it is former Fox News host and (at least for now) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s turn. I am under the impression that he is at least the third most dangerous person in America, though there are other people I will certainly explore in the future.
This week in military news the former Fox News host, called 800 of America’s top military leaders from around the world into an auditorium in Virginia to moan and complain about fat troops and the unleashing of American “war fighters,” as Hegseth calls them.
Donald Trump was also in attendance at this meeting where he gave a rambling over 70-minute speech. He too complained about the quality of American troops and said that the Department of Defense — which he and the former Fox News host now call the Department of War — should use American cities as training grounds.
Much to our “glorious” leader’s chagrin the military has a code of silence when it comes to political matters. The military leaders stayed silent throughout the rambling speech, they did not offer up any applause and they did not show any reaction to the political content of his camping style address.
Trump’s fantasies have long been incompatible with the traditions of the American military and with the laws of this nation. His latest fantasy of overriding the objection of state and local leaders and sending in armed troops to cities has been met time and time again with defeat in the courts.
This time around when Trump had the former Fox New host order 200 Oregon National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon, a Trump appointed judge ruled the deployment illegal and stopped it in its tracks. The deployment to Portland was purportedly meant to quell protests and defend federal property from rioters. It is worth noting that both state and city leaders deny there is any situation that even remotely warrants the deployment of troops to an American city.
The judge in the case, Judge Karin Immergut, said that “the use of the military to quell unrest without the state of Oregon consenting risked the sovereignty of that state and others, adding that it also inflamed tensions in the city and caused increased protests,” according to Christal Hayes for BBC news.
Donald Trump is surrounded by a series of Yes Men. There is no one left in the White House, or even Washington D.C., who is willing or able to say no to him or his ever changing whims.
As soon as the ruling from the court in Oregon was handed down, Trump ordered the deployment of 300 National Guard Troops to Chicago. This was again done over the objection of the state’s Gov. JB Pritzker and city leadership. Trump will stop at nothing to get what he wants from the nation and his henchmen.
Trump has found in Hegseth a brutal, faux military man who exudes a picture of America that never really existed. The former Fox News host was also an avid drinker during his time at the “news” channel. He drank to the extent that it reportedly “worried colleagues” at Fox, according to NBC News.
The former Fox News host sits atop a silent system that pushes out dissent and hides any wrong doing. It is the perfect place for a man like Hegseth to hide and silently carry out the mission he thinks he is there to do.
Hegseth’s goal as Defense Secretary is to snuff out the “wokeness” that he feels has overtaken the military. He feels that the standards of the military have been lowered to meet arbitrary quotas on gender and race, according to the New York Times.
The former Fox News host has also been happy to perch many Navy ships and at least a few thousand Marines off the coast of Venezuela. He has bragged about the fact that during the time the military has been deployed there, they have blown up two vessels reportedly carrying narcotics in open international waters. Across the two attacks the United States military has summarily killed at least 21 people, according to the New York Times.
These attacks are completely illegal under international law and likely under U.S. law as well. They are also a sharp departure from previous efforts made by the American government to stop the flow of drugs into the United States.
Traditionally vessels suspected of carrying drugs get into U.S. waters or land in the U.S. then are boarded or searched by the Coast Guard. Any drugs that are found are seized and the people on the vessel are arrested.
These attacks and Trump’s actions at home continue to prove over and over again that he only cares about himself.
“Have a good flight. Fly safely, you know why I say that? Because I’m on the flight. Otherwise I wouldn’t care,” Trump said to a flight full of reporters, only the latest example of his callousness.
Trump will destroy this nation. He will find ways to get around court orders, he will disregard the norms and traditions that hold this nation’s government to account. He will continue to find and rely on men like Hegseth to carry out his whims and desecrate the remains of this once great nation.
