There’s a lot of news about Trump’s new set of cabinet appointments. There’s Tulsi Gabbard the Russian Asset for National Intelligence (which she lacks). Kristi Noem the really compassionate dog-shooter at Homeland Security. Matt Gaetz the apparent pedophile in charge of the “Justice” Dept. There’s Robert Kennedy Jr. the vaccine conspiracy theorist for head of HHS, and then there’s Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary who many people complain is a mere Fox and Friends host.
He’s a lot more than that — and a lot worse — as shown by his own book and his lovely collection of Christian White Nationalist tattoos per Jeff Sharlet.
It’s not a parody; it’s from the cover of his 2020 book, American Crusade. Hegseth’s first tattoo, he says, was of a cross with a blade to represent Matthew 10:34, a cherry-picked vision of Jesus-as-warrior popular with Christian nationalists: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” On his chest he’s had inked a “Jerusalem cross”—a symbol of the crusaders’ holy war against Muslims and Jews—and on the flip side of his bicep there’s this, featured on his Instagram:
“Deus Vult,” God wills it, is more crusader kitsch—and popular with White supremacists. That doesn’t mean Hegseth’s a hater! Maybe he’s just a history buff…
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Pete Hegseth, who has already declared his plans to clean house of “woke” generals who, he claims, only have their jobs because of “diversity,” stalled out at major.
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The gist of new Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s book War on Warriors, per the intro, seems to be that the military is anti-White, conquered by a “diverse” “infection” intent on sabotaging the military—which would be treason. Which would, in the logic of this book, justify the self-declared “extremism” of a response he all but calls military itself.
If there’s any ambiguity about what Hegseth means by “infection,” he clears it right up:
Here is an uncommonly privileged White man named by Trump to run the military in which many, many Black, female, and queer Americans serve—as Hegseth currently does not—who have volunteered to put their lives on the line if needed, while Hegseth prattles on Fox, attacking the very soldiers, sailors, airmen (the term the Air Force uses), Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and “Guardians” (the Trump term for members of the Space Force he created) he’s set to lead. In his mind, they are the enemy.
So he has a Crusader tattoo, indicating victory by Christian Forces over the Muslim Horde — echoed by the Ridley Scott Movie Kingdom of God — and he believes that diversity is the enemy of the military (and strong White Men) which needs to be purged from the ranks.
So, shithead.
A shithead who intends to implement a cultural civil war. Also, there are allegations of sexual assault against him.
Trump nominated Hegseth for secretary of defense this week, but The Washington Post reported that the team is now "weighing the future" of the nomination.
"The transition team was caught by surprise by the detailed allegations and now fears more negative revelations about Hegseth," the Post wrote, citing a person familiar with the complaint.
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“There’s a lot of frustration around this,” the person said. “He hadn’t been properly vetted.”
The Trump team decided to outsource all vetting of the candidates to a private company rather than use the FBI. According to CNN, Trump's team believes FBI background checks take too long.
Hegseth's lawyer, Tim Parlatore, said that the allegations of assault never resulted in any criminal charges. The evidence provided in the report was a bruise on the inner thigh of the accuser, police reports said.
The incident reportedly happened when Hegseth attended a California Federation of Republican Women conference. One incident took place between midnight on Oct. 7, 2017, and 7 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. The report was filed on Oct. 12.
Parlatore promised, “There’s no other skeletons to come out.”
“No other skeletons,” he says — let’s see about that.
For example, some who have seen Hegseth’s tattoos have seen them as signs that he may be a White Supremacist Insider threat.
His tattoos have come under scrutiny in recent days, including one of a Jerusalem Cross, which he said is nothing more than a religious symbol — even if other extremists have adopted it.
Another tattoo raised concerns among his fellow National Guard members.
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According to The Associated Press, a colleague serving as "the unit’s security manager and on an anti-terrorism team" sent an email to the unit's leadership flagging "a different tattoo that’s been used by white supremacists." There was a fear that Hegseth could be an “Insider Threat.”
The bicep tattoo reads "Deus Vult," which is Latin for “God will it." The tattoo along with the Jerusalem Cross is "linked to the First Crusade in the early 1000s, when it was supposedly a battle cry for Christian invaders," reported the conservative New York Post.
Because of these tattoos, Hegseth was barred from duty with the National Guard during Biden’s Inauguration.
The Associated Press reported that 12 U.S. National Guard members were removed from helping to secure Mr. Biden's 2021 inauguration after vetting by the U.S. military and FBI. They were found to have made extremist statements in posts or text messages or had ties with right-wing militia groups. In an interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, Hegseth said he was one of the National Guard members removed from securing the inauguration.
"I was deemed an extremist because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington, D.C., and my orders were revoked to guard the Biden inauguration… a Jerusalem cross tattoo which is just a Christian symbol," he told Ryan.
But that's not the tattoo that his fellow guardsman, DeRicko Gaither, pointed out to his superiors. He told CBS News, "When I looked at the pictures – in one he had the tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross, which I didn't think was a problem."
"The next photo he had on his inner bicep he had a bicep that said 'Deux Vult,'" Gaither said. "I looked it up, and that tattoo had ties to extremist groups. So, I sent to my leadership. I included the photo attachment and the Army policy about tattoos. I said I just want you to know what's going on. I received a response saying Pete had been removed from the mission."
Then, in case you forget this fuckwit is still around, JD Vance now says that the criticism of Hegseth’s Crusader and Supremacist tattoos is “Disgusting Anti-Christian Bigotry.”
"They're attacking Pete Hegseth for having a Christian motto tattooed on his arm," wrote Vance on X. "This is disgusting anti-Christian bigotry from the AP, and the entire organization should be ashamed of itself."
Yeah, we should expect this from the guy who got into a knock-down drag-out with Jake Tapper defending Trump’s “Enemies from Within” rhetoric about using the Military against Democratic politicians. Really, how many mainstream Christians are going around flying flags with the Jerusalem Cross on them? And is it really “bigotry” to complain when someone burns a cross in your yard?
Seriously.
Hegseth was stationed at Gitmo when torture was used as policy and has openly lobbied for forgiveness for soldiers who committed war crimes — including murder. In his own book, he complains that he was effectively booted out of the military for being too radical. And by “radical” he means being a homophobe, misogynist asshole who believes that the military is only for MEN, and that it has been weakened by the constant strive to virtue signal “wokeness”.
By which he means equality and diversity.
Sharlet Continued:
Trump’s secretary of defense—responsible for executing the orders to use the US military domestically, that Trump has said he will give, the unlawful orders he fired one of his previous defense secretaries, Mark Esper, for refusing—refers to the “left,” a category in which he includes protesters, professors, and presidents, as “domestic enemies”:
Hegseth views them—us—much as he viewed his enemies in Iraq:
And he knows just what to do:
This is not “outside the norm.” This is civil war talk.
He equates protesters with terrorists. He has no compunction about using the U.S. Military against them. After he’s purged the military of gays, women and minorities who might empathize with the issues they’re protesting.
Would this be the guy to say “Hell, no!” when Trump tries to unleash the Military against the US populace who dares to protest and resist him?
Nope.
Again, there are indications that this guy would completely dismantle our military under the weight of running to DOD.
The managerial task is enormous. If you ask the question and you want to talk about Pete Hegseth in terms of, 'Is he qualified to run the defense department?' Well, the answer is, obviously, 'No,'" said Heilemann. "I mean, for generations, it's [been] seen as the hardest cabinet position. It is, you know, a monstrous city in many ways."
He pointed out that the stress and importance of the job is so "enormous" that it "kills people, causes people to have nervous breakdowns."
"He is not qualified to run it. He is qualified to ruin it," quipped Heilemann. "And that is, to go back to the first topic, the deconstruction of the administrative state."
He explained that he meant Trump isn't interested in running the agencies well with the appointees. He wants them to "wreck those institutions."
As a Major in the National Guard Hegseth would have been in charge of 60-200 soldiers under his command. Now, he’s going from that to being in charge of Millions of people. That’s like going from being the night manager at Target to running the entire company with nearly a half million employees.
He’s not ready. Not even close.
