Pete Hegseth
April 16, 2026 — John Hinderaker
In a little over a year in office, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has achieved a series of military triumphs that have not, perhaps, been equaled since World War II: the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, and the air campaign against Iran’s regime. These missions have been flawlessly executed by Hegseth’s department, so naturally the Democrats want to impeach him. The first articles of impeachment
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March 3, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Has any cabinet officer ever had a better year than Secretary of War* Pete Hegseth? His department has pulled off three brilliant, flawless operations in a row: the devastation of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the apprehension of wanted criminal Nicolas Maduro, and now Operation Epic Fury. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio is being justly celebrated for his great work over the past year, Hegseth has generally not gotten the credit
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January 5, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly and five Democratic members of Congress released a video that encouraged service members to refuse to follow the orders of their superior officers. It is hard to imagine a more irresponsible action by elected public officials, especially given the fact that, when asked, none of these Democrats could name a single order issued under the Trump administration that was illegal. Today Secretary of War
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November 24, 2025 — John Hinderaker
We wrote here about the disgraceful video produced by six elected Democrats, encouraging uniformed members of the military, as well as members of the intelligence community, to “resist” the Trump administration by refusing to obey orders. Today the Pentagon announced that it is investigating Senator Mark Kelly’s involvement in that incitement to insurrection: The video made by the “Seditious Six” was despicable, reckless, and false. Encouraging our warriors to ignore
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November 9, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times headlines: “Hegseth is purging military leaders and offering little explanation.” Subhed: “The moves to fire or sideline generals and admirals are without precedent in recent decades and have rattled the top brass.” I think the Times totally fails to understand that most of us will see this as good news. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals over
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October 3, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Those were the topics I covered last night on the Rowan Dean Show on Sky News: the partial government shutdown and what caused it, Secretary Hegseth’s anti-woke reforms, the latest revelations about Joe Biden’s mental incapacity, and–very briefly–Bad Bunny as a Super Bowl halftime performer. Quotable quote, regarding the shutdown: “Basically, the Democrats are trying to bully the Republicans into giving up their electoral majorities.”
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September 25, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In what may be an unprecedented move, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has summoned top military brass to Washington for a meeting: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will meet with top military leaders next week, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday, following a report that the rare gathering will include hundreds of generals and admirals. “The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean
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August 20, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Today the Washington Post published a long hit piece on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s security detail. The article is based on interviews with “more than a dozen” people, all of whom, of course, are anonymous. This is the gist: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in
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August 18, 2025 — John Hinderaker
During the post-war era, there has often been covert or open war between a hawkish Department of Defense and a dovish State Department. Sometimes it was worse, as in the Biden administration, when we had a dovish Defense Department, too. But tension between State and Defense has largely been the norm, and State Department dovishness has sometimes verged on anti-Americanism, as we saw in the USAID scandal. One of the
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July 14, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Second-tier wars have often been proving grounds for new weapons and techniques. Thus, to cite just one example, the American Civil War was followed closely by military leaders in Europe. Such is the case with the Russia/Ukraine war. That war has featured extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles, i.e., drones. Many believe that the use of drones renders some of our own military doctrines obsolete. Fox News reports that Secretary
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June 26, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Former Power Line contributor and, oh, yeah, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan “Razin” Caine just briefed the press on the efficacy of our strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities this past Saturday evening. Secretary Hegseth dropped a few massive penetrators of his own during the briefing while General Caine detailed the mechanics of the attack (with video) and paid tribute to everyone involved in the operation.
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June 22, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Dating back to his military service at Guantanamo, Pete Hegseth is a former Power Line correspondent. He is also, oh, yeah, Secretary of Defense. Along with Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine (some call him “Razin'”), Secretary Hegseth held the Pentagon briefing on our strikes on the three Iranian nuclear facilities struck last night. I have cued the Department of Defense video of the press conference below to start with Hegseth’s
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May 26, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The Trump administration chose Memorial Day to debut a new ad, promoting its vision for America’s armed forces. The voices are those of Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump. The ideas are ones we have heard before, and they explain why, after a deep slump under Joe Biden, military recruitment is now booming: The message strikes me as just about perfect. There are many reasons why you would have to be
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March 23, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The Democratic Party’s judicial attack on the Trump administration and the Executive Branch is centered on the federal district court for the District of Columbia. One of those judges, Ana Reyes, has issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Defense from implementing the President’s executive order barring transgender people from military service. Judge Reyes, born in Uruguay, was appointed to the federal bench in 2023 by Joe Biden. Wikipedia
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February 12, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Steve has noted that President Trump is working hard to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end. In a closely related development, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned our NATO allies that they will have to be primarily responsible for defending Europe: America cannot be relied upon to guarantee the security of Europe from Russia because it has to focus on its own borders and the threat of China, President
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February 11, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered that Fort Liberty–re-named such during the post-George Floyd hysteria–once again be called Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg was named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who fought generally in the Western theater and was from North Carolina, where the fort is located. Bragg was not a particularly good general, and he didn’t achieve anything noteworthy in civilian life. Fort Bragg was founded during World War
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January 28, 2025 — John Hinderaker
A friend sent me a link to this video of an interview with Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril Industries, whose company is about to invest $1 billion in Ohio. Anduril manufactures munitions and other defense-related hardware. Luckey talks about the fact that no one goes to a state like California, once the main hub of defense procurement, and he explains what drew his company to Ohio. At one level,
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