Pete “Whiskeyleaks” Hegseth keeps endangering the rest of us with his shocking unfitness for the job of defense secretary. Besides his jaw-dropping security breaches in Signalgate, Pentagon officials have said his mismanagement, preoccupation with optics and personal loyalty have “caused bureaucratic logjams [and] brought some basic, but essential military business to a standstill.”
So, it’s not a huge surprise that Hegseth’s security demands benefit himself to the detriment of the United States.
Don’t get me wrong. Even a total creep like Kegsbreath deserves to be safe. It’s just too bad he and his fellow Trumpers don’t seem to care about making sure the rest of us are, too.
The Washington Post reported on the strains on our military Hegseth is causing:
Army CID [Criminal Investigation Division] has faced significant staffing and budgetary shortfalls for years, but new demands since Hegseth’s arrival in January have put added pressure on the agency, officials said.
“We have complete inability to achieve our most basic missions,” one person said.
…
One CID official expressed frustration with the situation, saying agents were being taken off investigations — “doing what we are supposed to be doing” — to “sit on luggage” instead or “sit in the cars on the driveway.”
One official told The Post, “I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy … Nobody has.” The Post also reported that the Trump administration is apparently unwilling “to meet the Army’s request for additional funding and personnel for the mission.” If Hegseth has gone to bat for the Army with the Draft Dodger in Chief, he isn’t making much noise about it.
Hegseth seems either clueless, oblivious or totally unconcerned, or maybe all three, about making the job easier for his security detail and our national security. The Post provides a telling anecdote about the Hegseth family attending a Washington Nationals baseball game. They didn’t buy seats in a private suite “which could have lessened the burden on those assigned to protect them, said two people familiar with the matter.”
Instead, the family purchased seats in a section of the ballpark that did not allow for private access, which required the protective detail to cover a larger and more exposed area, people familiar with the matter said. A video taken by the news site the 812 shows in one frame multiple agents watching after the family. The security team can be seen creating a barrier around the Hegseths as the family leaves their seats and walks through a crowded concourse before exiting into a stairwell.
As I wrote last month, Pentagon officials think as little of Hegseth as we do. DailyMail.com was leaked a letter circulating among “among high and mid-level military brass and civilian workers” calling for his ouster and to “Let the American public know this guy has no clue what he's doing,” as one source put it.
It’s not clear what happened to that letter. What is clear is that Hegseth does not just suck at his job, he’s a menace to the military and to the country.
