For what feels like the 10,000th time, I find myself asking: What on earth is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thinking? This time, though, the question arises not because of a policy decision, but because of a political one. For the second time this year, Hegseth hit the campaign trail.
Hegseth traveled to Iowa this week to appear alongside Rep. Zach Nunn, three months after speaking at an event for House candidate Ed Gallrein in Kentucky. On both occasions, Hegseth and the Pentagon have said that he made these stopovers in a “personal capacity” rather than as defense secretary. Yet there is no known precedent for this kind of behavior by someone in his position. Hegseth is a political appointee, but his work overseeing the Pentagon is meant to be conducted in a nonpartisan manner — he’s supposed to be defending all Americans.
Beyond the breach of norms, Hegseth’s actions also display how out of touch with the country the Trump administration is. Trump is hitting the lowest approval ratings of his presidency in no small part because of his catastrophically mismanaged war of aggression against Iran. Hegseth is overseeing the execution of that war. And his updates on that war are not sober reckonings with a military operation gone terribly wrong, but corny performances of bellicosity, punctuated by requests that Congress give him more money to throw down the drain.
Hegseth is exceptionally unpopular in the Trump administration.
Hegseth campaigned for Gallrein during a Republican primary, which meant he only had to appeal to a MAGA-friendly audience. Nunn, however, is running in a battleground district. Smart politicians in competitive districts typically downplay or distance themselves from unpopular administrations, or at least their most unpopular positions. Hegseth’s appearance, during which he emphasized that Nunn understands “why it’s important to fund our military,” does the opposite. It reminds voters that Nunn comes from a party that is costing them dearly at the gas pump, all for a war that has been mortifying for Iran war hawks, which should lead us to also ask: What was Nunn thinking by letting Hegseth campaign for him?
What makes it all the stranger is that Hegseth is exceptionally unpopular in the Trump administration. CNN data analyst Harry Enten, reviewing recent polling from Fox News and Quinnipiac University, called Hegseth “the lowest of the low” in the president’s Cabinet. In the Quinnipiac poll, Hegseth’s job approval is 22 points underwater — significantly worse than the net approvals of Secretary of State Marco Rubio (-8%), and Vice President JD Vance (-17%). Given that Rubio is also associated with the war with Iran (as well as Trump’s intervention in Venezuela), it suggests Hegseth has something uniquely repellent about him to the public.
Remarkably, despite his poor marks with the public, The Washington Post reported that “officials familiar with Hegseth’s thinking believe that he is considering a run for president or some other political office after his time in the Trump administration is over.” Appearances in Iowa are a surefire strategy for potential presidential candidates to float trial balloons about their viability. Given his track record, anti-charisma and polling trends, I think we already have the answer to that. Something tells me Hegseth might need more convincing.
The post Pete Hegseth’s effort to campaign for GOP lawmakers makes zero sense appeared first on MS NOW.
