Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
“I stand here today speaking to you, the American people, not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin.
“A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing, we know this at this point, to downplay progress, amplify every cost and call into question every step. Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail, but you, the American people, know better.
“Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today. It's you, the good, decent, patriotic American people; you, the hardworking, tax paying, God-fearing American patriots. The media here, not all of it, but much of it wants you to think just 19 days into this conflict that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians like Bush, Obama and Biden, squander American credibility. This is not those wars. President Trump knows better. Epic Fury is different. It's laser focused.”
That was Pete Hegseth in an opening to a press briefing on March 19.
First, credit to Mr. Hegseth for his service to the country in uniform. That honor cannot be overlooked.
But it also doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the man who ought to be the Secretary of Defense, or, as he would like to call it, “Secretary of War.”
Had it not been for JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote in the Senate, Hegseth would have probably still been hosting Fox & Friends Weekend doing whatever he could to ingratiate himself to Donald Trump with hopes that he could get a new job. But that already happened and Vance, who had been an anti-interventionist (noting that wars tend to be a “distraction of resources” and a “huge expense”) put Pete in the seat from which he and Trump direct, well, war.
Hegseth, for all his macho bravado in these briefings about Iran, shows himself to not have any idea about what the “steps” are in this war. And the comments quoted above show that he has the thinnest of skin.
Let’s break this down.
He starts out by claiming he is speaking directly to the American people.
How many Americans are listening to Pentagon press briefings at 9 am on a Thursday morning? Not many. Odds are they’re at work. Doesn’t he recognize that? Probably not.
Somewhat ironic that he references “cable news spin,” which used to be his salary-earning mechanism. For Hegseth as well as other people in the Trump administration who also earned some pocket money from Fox, no spin, no win.
Then he cites “A dishonest and anti-Trump press.” What is his rationale for calling these people’s veracity into question? He doesn’t have any. And examples for downplaying things? Again, nothing. And if calling into question every step means asking why, for example, the Strait of Hormuz is blocked and that securing it should have been part of the initial steps, then who has the real problem — them or him?
Then it is back to the “good, decent, patriotic American people; you, the hardworking, tax paying, God-fearing American patriots.”
Does it occur to him that those reporters he is denigrating are (1) working and (2) likely paying their taxes?
Does he know that they are not good? Not decent? Not patriotic? Not “God-fearing American patriots”?
Well, he might think they are not the last-named because if they were they would not even raise an eyebrow at anything Hegseth says but simply cheer louder than they are clapping and stamping their feet in support.
After he besmirches the press corps he goes on to calling previous presidents fools.
Yes, that is respectful.
This could be a pot-kettle-black situation: Has American credibility in the world ever been squandered more than during this present Trump administration, when Trump put on tariffs willy-nilly, then started a war without telling our allies outside of Israel then calling them “cowards” because they don’t want to get involved in a war that they weren’t consulted on?
Oh, but it must be the fault of the press in some way. If only they would report that everything being done is laser focused. Near as I can tell laser focus doesn’t include the commander in chief saying that the war will be over when he “feels it in my bones.”
What most 79-year-olds feel in their bones is arthritis. Could it happen that one day he doubles up on his daily aspirin regime and conclude that he feels so good the war must be over?
Hegseth has had an apparent fear of the press, which led to his requirement last fall that to cover the Pentagon sign quasi-NDAs. Needless to say, reputable news outlets said no thanks while a phalanx of sycophants found themselves moved to the head of Hegseth’s class.
The New York Times sued because they didn’t think things like having their reporting “approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified” was in keeping with the spirit and letter of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. That’s right: the Times took a patriotic stand, a real sign of patriotism, more so than Hegseth’s flag pocket square.
As US District Judge Paul Friedman wrote in his ruling released on March 20: “A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription. Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech. That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now.”
Perhaps the framers of the Constitution had Trump Derangement Syndrome and didn’t know it because how could they possibly have stood up for something like actual freedom, not the freedom as defined by Pete Hegseth.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, where he writes primarily for the right column.