Trump and Hesgeth, Perfect Together But Horrible For The Nation
Trump fell in love with Pete Hesgeth when the Fox News personality began a campaign to absolve any guilt for a Navy SEAL who committed obvious war crimes when he shot Iraqis in cold blood, including an elderly man and a school-age girl and stabbed to death a wounded suspected terrorist and then had a picture taken of the gruesome scene and emailed it to a friend.
Trump, who enjoys playing the role of the rifle-toting, macho man, avoided military service through a deferment for a questionable case of bone spurs. He has tabbed Hesgeth, 44, to the all-powerful post of secretary of defense. Hesgeth’s primary qualification is that he believes that generals who oppose trump should be court martialed. He also is lockstep behind trump’s most militant positions as he has used his Fox soapbox to push for extreme war-like measures such as attacking Iran’s infrastructure, oil production facilities, nuclear facilities and cultural sites.
“What better time than now to say, we’re starting the clock, you’ve got a week, you’ve got X amount of time before we start taking out your energy production facilities. We take out key infrastructure. We take out your missile sites. We take out nuclear developments,” Hesgeth said on Fox.
Added to that, Hesgeth has some bad ass tattoos associated with white power.
It is possible that the famously germophobic trump may have to pass on Hegseth who doesn’t believe in germs and didn’t wash hands for 10 years. Really.
Among other very dangerous proposals, trump is considering creating a “warrior board” of retired officers who would recommend the removal of three- and four-star generals who happened to be against trump’s policies. Trump would likely name retired officers with his same politics to the panel, like the soiled, ex-national security advisor, Michael Flynn. Given his past criticisms of high-ranking military, Hegseth could be in a position to advise that certain generals be fired, if they didn’t hew to the trumpian loyalty rules, thereby totally obliterating the traditional separation of politics and the military.
Hegseth is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor at the network since 2014. He is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” He was an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and served overseas in Afghanistan, Iran and Guantanamo Bay. He was formerly head of the Koch-funded group Concerned Veterans for America.
Hesgeth is against allowing women in combat roles, once called liberals “domestic enemies” who want “trans-lesbian black females [to] run everything!”, has rejected the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and was a staunch ally of trump and his claims that he was robbed of the 2020 election by unproven voter fraud.
The extraordinarily underqualified Hesgeth would replace four star general, Lloyd J. Austin III. Austin retired from the military in 2016 and previously served as the 12th commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), beginning in March 2013. Before that he was the 33rd vice chief of staff of the Army from January 2012 to March 2013, and as commander of United States Forces — Iraq from September 2010 to December 2011.
Austin commanded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan at the one-, two-, three- and four-star levels, and was the first African American to command a division, corps, and field army in combat. He is a recipient of the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for valor, for his actions during the Iraq invasion, as well as five Defense Distinguished Service Medals.
The Secretary of Defense is in charge of an $842 billion budget that includes 2 million employees in all U.S. armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force and the Coast Guard when its command and control is transferred to the Department of Defense. The secretary is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet whose position of command and authority over the military is second only to the president who is the commander-in-chief.
Hesgeth has no experience running a large organization, has little foreign policy experience, and has never worked with Congress to pass billions in military budgets.
The bromance between trump and Hesgeth started with their mutual defense of and admiration for the now-retired, Navy SEAL Edward R. Gallagher who was charged in September 2018 with 10 offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Included in the charges was that he stabbed and killed a scraggly, injured 17-year-old ISIS prisoner, then had himself photographed with the corpse, and sent the photo to friends.
On July 2, 2019, Gallagher was convicted of posing for a photograph with the corpse, but was acquitted of the other charges.
Gallagher, 45, was a decorated 19-year Navy veteran on his eighth tour of duty with eight overseas deployments, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was trained as a medic, a sniper, and an explosives expert and became a Navy SEAL.
During his career, Gallagher was involved in controversies and investigations but received few formal reprimands. He was investigated for shooting a young girl in Afghanistan in 2010, but was cleared after an investigation by comrades who had deployed with him. He allegedly tried to run over a Navy police officer with his car in 2014, after being detained at a traffic stop. That also was overlooked.
During his eighth deployment, Gallagher served during the bloody Battle of Mosul in 2016 and 2017.The allies retook the critical city in what is considered to be the toughest urban battle since World War II. Gallagher’s role was to serve in an advisory role and not in direct action. He was the subject of a number of reports from other SEAL team members, who claimed that his actions were not in keeping with the rules of war. The reports were dismissed by the SEAL command structure.
The Navy only began actively investigating allegations against Gallagher after the reports were publicized outside the SEAL community. On September 11, 2018, Gallagher was charged with premeditated murder, attempted murder, obstruction of justice, and other offenses. Gallagher, who goes by the nickname “Blade,” pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The most prominent accusation was the murder of a prisoner of war, a war crime. Khaled Jamal Abdullah, a captured 17-year-old fighter of the Islamic State, was being treated by a medic. Two SEAL witnesses said Gallagher called out “he’s mine” over the radio, then walked up to Abdullah and allegedly stabbed him to death with his hunting knife. Gallagher and his commanding officer, Lt. Jake Portier, then posed for photographs standing over the body with some other nearby SEALs. Gallagher texted a friend in California a picture of himself holding the dead captive’s head by the hair with the explanation “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.”
Senior platoon members confronted Gallagher who dressed them down and said, “Stop worrying about it; they do a lot worse to us.”
Prosecutors alleged that Gallagher’s sniper work during his 2017 deployment became “reckless” and “bloodthirsty.” Other snipers said that Gallagher was not a good sniper, and that he took “random shots” into buildings
Other snipers said they saw Gallagher taking at least two militarily pointless shots, shooting and killing an unarmed elderly man in a white robe and a young girl walking with other girls. Gallagher allegedly boasted about the number of people he had killed, claiming he averaged three kills a day over 80 days, including four women. Gallagher also was reportedly known for indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine gun fire with no known enemy force in the region.
One SEAL sniper told investigators that he heard a shot from Gallagher’s sniper position, then saw a schoolgirl in a flower-print hijab crumple to the ground. Another sniper reported hearing a shot from Gallagher’s position and seeing a man carrying a water jug fall, a red blotch spreading on his back. Neither episode was investigated and the fate of the civilians remains unknown.
“Chief Gallagher decided to act like the monster the terrorists accuse us of being,” said the original Navy prosecutor Chris Czaplak. “He handed ISIS propaganda manna from heaven. His actions are everything ISIS says we are.”
Gallagher’s lawyer claimed that the accusations were false and were made by a small number of disgruntled SEALs who could not meet Gallagher’s leadership demands.
The Navy did not begin a formal investigation for nearly a year after the reports were made and by then much of the physical evidence, such as the bodies of those alleged to be killed by Gallagher, were not recoverable. The family of the boy Gallagher allegedly stabbed to death, was contacted by media several years after the event and said they were unaware of how their son had died and that they had not been contacted by prosecutors.
Perhaps reflecting his own delusional belief of being persecuted by the “deep state,” on March 30, trump upended the military code of justice and ordered Gallagher transferred to “less restrictive confinement” after complaints from his supporters, particularly commentators on Fox and Friends.
“In honor of his past service to our Country, Navy Seal #EddieGallagher will soon be moved to less restrictive confinement while he awaits his day in court. Process should move quickly!” trump tweeted on March 30, 2019.
Hasgeth said on a segment of Fox & Friends, “From the beginning, this was overzealous prosecutors who were not giving the benefit of the doubt to the trigger-pullers.”
Rather than accept information from his own government, trump responded to television reports. Trump boasts that he supports the military but he has claimed that the higher echelons are part of the “deep state” and are not to be trusted. The highest ranks in the Navy insisted that Gallagher be held accountable but trump overruled the chain of command and the secretary of the Navy was fired.
Trump later reinstated Gallagher’s rank to Chief Petty Officer.
“Before the prosecution of Special Warfare Operator First Class Edward Gallagher, he had been selected for promotion to Senior Chief, awarded a Bronze Star with a “V” for valor, and assigned to an important position in the Navy as an instructor. Though ultimately acquitted on all of the most serious charges, he was stripped of these honors as he awaited his trial and its outcome. Given his service to our Nation, a promotion back to the rank and pay grade of Chief Petty Officer is justified,” trump said.
Trump told supporters that he pushed back against the “deep state” when he pardoned and granted clemency to Gallagher, Army Major Golsteyn and Army Lt. Clint Lorance.
Before Gallagher’s case was resolved, Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret, was charged with killing an unarmed man linked to the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2010. Golsteyn had pleaded not guilty. Minutes after Hasgeth’s segment on “Fox & Friends,” trump tweeted that he would review the case, repeating language from the segment.
“At the request of many, I will be reviewing the case of a ‘U.S. Military hero,’ Major Matt Golsteyn, who is charged with murder. He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a Terrorist bomb maker while overseas,” trump tweeted and Hesgeth re-tweeted on his Fox show on Dec. 16,2018.
Lorance was found guilty in 2013 of ordering his soldiers to fire on three unarmed Afghan men on a motorcycle. He has served six years of the 19-year prison sentence he received for the charge.
Trump pardoned Gallagher and granted executive clemency for Golsteyn and Lorance.
In late November 2019, Gallagher retired from the Navy with full honors, pension, and medical benefits. Following his Navy career, Gallagher began commercial ventures including an action figure, clothing line and nutritional supplement endorsements.
Perhaps the most chilling aspect about Hegseth is his choice of multiple tattoos including two Crusades-era symbols that are associated with far-right extremism and Christian nationalism.
Hegseth’s tattoos include the relatively innocuous, “We the People” phrase, a “Join, or Die” snake from the American Revolution, an American flag with an AR-15 rifle and a patch of his regiment, the 187th Infantry.
But other tattoos reflect an extreme strain of Christian nationalism known as Reformed Reconstructionism, which believes in applying biblical Christian law to society, exclusively male leadership, and actively preparing the world for the prophesied return of Jesus.
One of Hegseth’s most prominent tattoos is a large Jerusalem cross on his chest, a symbol featuring a large cross potent with smaller Greek crosses in each of its four quadrants. The symbol was used in the Crusades and represented the Kingdom of Jerusalem that the Crusaders established.
Crusader symbols have also grown popular on the far-right. The shooter who committed the 2019 New Zealand mosque massacre had adopted symbols of the Crusades, and a crusader symbol also appeared at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in the U.S. Capitol and at the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hegseth has said he was barred from attending President Joe Biden’s inauguration just two weeks after Jan. 6, after fellow National Guardsmen alerted their superiors that the tattoos represented extremist politics.
Another tattoo on his bicep includes the phrase “Deus Vult,” Latin for “God wills it.” Latin for “God wills it,” it was a cry used during the First Crusade in the 11th century, when a Christian army from Europe slaughtered Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land. It is also the closing sentence of Hegseth’s 2020 book, titled “American Crusade.”
The slogan has been used by members of far-right, white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups. The perpetrator of the 2023 Allen, Texas, mall shooting had it tattooed alongside neo-Nazi tattoos, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which said that the phrase had been “adopted by some white supremacists.”
Hegseth also has a cross and sword tattooed on his arm, which he says represents a New Testament verse from Matthew 10:34, which reads, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
A Florida gunmaker, Spike’s Tactical, makes an AR-15-style rifle they call the “Crusader.” The rifle features an engraved Templar shield logo opposite the Psalm, and has three settings on it, named, “Pax Pacis, Bellum, & Deus Vult,” or “Peace, War, and God Wills It,”
A company spokesperson said in 2015, “This ensures that no Muslim terrorist will ever pick up this weapon and use it to bring harm against another person. That’s actually my favorite part of the rifle.”
Supporters of far-right wing, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro shared on-line memes of “Deus Vult.”
When Adolf Hitler staged the Munich Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, a British supporter of the Nazis, wrote an essay for the Nazi party newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, entitled “God Wills It!” calling on all Germans to join the putsch.
In March 2017, Poland was the scene of a march by nationalist supporters of xenophobia and racism. Marchers carried banners and chanted anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiments. One large banner read “Deus Vult” in Gothic lettering. In recent years, the slogan has been used by the radical right to show hostility to Islam.
Some other Hesgeth lowpoints:
· Hegseth was the subject of a sexual assault complaint in 2017 in Monterey, Calif., No charges were filed but Hesgeth reportedly reached a settlement agreement with the woman who had accused him. The alleged assault happened while Hegseth was a speaker at a conference of the California Federation of Republican Women at the Monterey hotel in early October 2017. The complaint was filed four days after the encounter, and the woman had bruises to her thigh.
· Hegseth has been a vocal critic of the COVID-19 vaccine and the military’s requirement for service members to get the shot.
· In a 2019 Fox show, Hesgeth revealed that he couldn’t remember washing his hands “once” during the past decade because, “Germs are not a real thing. I can’t see them, therefore they’re not real.”
· In his book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” Hegseth wrote that “red-blooded American men” were needed to save America from the “radical leftist leaders” and “elite candy-asses.” He ranted about the military going “woke” with “diverse recruits” who were being “pumped full of vaccines and even more poisonous ideologies.”
· He said that Democrats, liberals, including former President Barack Obama, are America’s “domestic enemies” and that those who support policies to improve diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI are “cowards hiding under stars,” “whores to wokesters,” “willing tools, taking orders from Ivy League leftists,” “[c]owards, then sellouts.”
To be fair, Hegseth’s nomination is not as bad as some.
For example, in 1922, Ioiô (“Yo-yo”), a billy goat, was elected city councilor of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. In 1938, Kenneth Simmons entered Boston Curtis, a brown mule, as a candidate for a Republican precinct seat in Milton, Wash., winning 51 to zero. In 1967, an Ecuadorian foot powder company advertised its product, Pulvapies, as a mayoral candidate in the town of Picoazá. Allegedly, the foot powder won by a clear majority.
Bosco the dog, a black Labrador-Rottweiler mix, was elected honorary mayor of Sunol, Calif. and served from 1981–1994. In 1997, a cat named Stubbs was elected mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska.
In 2012, the town of Idyllwild, Calif., elected a Golden Retriever named Max as mayor for life. Mayor Max I was succeeded by Mayor Max II upon his death, in 2013. Max II was in turn succeeded by Max III in 2022.
In March 2019, a 3-year-old Nubian goat named Lincoln was elected mayor of Fair Haven, Vt., defeating a Samoyed dog named Sammie by two votes.
Cacareco, a rhinoceros at the zoo in São Paulo,Brazil, was a candidate for the 1958 city council elections to protest against political corruption. Officials did not accept Cacareco’s candidacy, but she still garnered 100,000 votes, more than any other party in that same election.
Pigasus the Immortal was a boar hog that the Yippies nominated as a candidate in the 1968 U.S. presidential election. Mr. Potato Head, a toy manufactured by Hasbro, received four votes in Boise, Idaho’s mayoral election in 1985. A fire hydrant ran for election multiple times 2004–2008 at the University of British Columbia, including a position on the Board of Governors, coming within 6 percent of being elected.
But at least a hydrant, a rhineroceros, a goat and Mr. Potato Head can’t start a war. Actually, Hesgeth may rank at the top of the worst candidates for any office, elected or appointed. He is surely more dangerous.