Per his own book, Trump’s Secretary of Defense nominee is down for Civil War II

Jeff Sharlet, author of The Undertow, and one of our very best (and bravest) writers engaging with American fascism as it actually exists on the ground, has done the ugly work of reading Pete Hegseth’s book, The War on Warriors. Yes, the very same Hegseth who hangs out on weekends with the other reanimated mannequins on Fox and Friends, and who has been chosen by President-Elect Trump to run the US military.

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So what does the potential new Secretary of Defense think about the army? Here’s Sharlet, doing god’s work on Elon’s Twitter:

NYT says Trump Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is “outside the norm.” That’s one way of describing a military leader who calls for civil war in his new book and attacks “diverse” recruits. pic.twitter.com/ucMS6RT0d1

— Jeff Sharlet (@JeffSharlet) November 13, 2024

Yup, that’s right: “Leftists stole a lot from us, but we won’t let them take this [the army]. Time for round two—we won’t miss this war.”

Here’s some more:

A “jody” is what you call a person who cheats w/ the spouse of a member of the military. This bit from the new Secretary of Defense is pervy stuff, cuckold hate fantasy straight out of the manosphere. Keep in mind by “left” he means all from Antifa to Dem presidents. 9/ pic.twitter.com/pNw4TyH7XI

— Jeff Sharlet (@JeffSharlet) November 13, 2024

Look, I know we’re all exhausted by the last eight years of Trump’s malignant idiocy, and that it’s very hard to have any faith in national Democratic leadership… BUT, I do firmly believe that even as we actively work like hell to protect those Americans most at risk from a second Trump presidency, we also need to call out all the fascist bullshit happening in plain sight.

So: Pete Hegseth is a dangerous and useful idiot who should be nowhere near the kind of power wielded by the Secretary of Defense.