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Hegseth: Profoundly and Uniquely Unqualified! [1]

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Date: 2025-01-24

According to the radical right, a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) hire undermines the “qualifications” of merit-based systems in favor of factors like race or gender. Using their definition, it is clear that Pete Hegseth, who Trump nominated for the position of Secretary of the Department of Defense, would be a DEI hire.

It has been a long process for Hegseth since Trump nominated him on November 12, 2024. He has met with one Republican senator after another. Still, despite many requests from various Democratic Senators, Hegseth has only met with Jack Reed (RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and John Fetterman (PA), who is not on the committee.

The Senate will likely vote to confirm Hegseth as the Secretary of the Department of Defense this evening, January 24th, along mostly party lines, which will make it the smallest margin of victory for any DOD Secretary ever. Initially, it was reported that six Republican senators were uncomfortable with Hegseth, but that has changed. Currently, as expected, only two Republican Senators will vote against Hegseth: Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME). Both believe he is entirely unfit to lead the DOD. This is surprising. The main thing that Republicans say they care for is the military, but they clearly aren’t showing it based on their blind support of Hegseth. Advice and consent under Trump seem to be a weak broth at best.

Senator Jodi Ernst (IA) was considered a key vote against Hegseth. She voiced strong reservations about him in remarks on December 5th and 9th. Then, the MAGA faithful piled on by threatening her with a primary challenge in 2026, even inviting Kari Lake to do the deed. The onslaught was enough to cause Ernst to bend the knee on January 14, 2025, by stating that she would vote to confirm Hegseth.

Despite Trump’s Executive Orders dismantling DEI and Civil Rights enforcement, he stands firmly behind Hegseth, who, putting all of his character failures aside, is profoundly and uniquely unqualified to lead the Department of Defense. Based on the radical rights definitions, there is no merit in this regard whatsoever. We can only conclude by those same definitions that Pete Hegseth is a DEI hire. Will this be Trump’s last?

I am working on an article about DEI that I will post tomorrow, but it is impossible to ignore the irony of Hegseth’s nomination and expected confirmation. Such irony demands satire, so please bear with me.

Now, some—including Hegseth himself—have described the DOD as a “woke” institution. To achieve greater diversity, Hegseth’s well-documented White Supremacist sympathies and outspoken anti-wokeness make him the perfect fit.

Since the previous Secretary of Defense is an over-qualified Black man, it’s only fair that we give Hegseth, an under-qualified White man, a chance at doing a “black” job. Equity demands this.

While the military is technically very sophisticated, it still needs leadership from individuals who possess basic military skills, like axe-throwing. (Never mind the fact that during a 2015 Fox & Friends segment, Hegseth struck a U.S. Army master sergeant in the arm with an axe throw.)

Lloyd Austin, former DOD Secretary, resigned on January 17, 2025. He began his tenure at the age of 67. If we are to take reverse ageism seriously, Hegseth’s age of 44 demonstrates a commitment to inclusion.

Unfortunately, a lack of experience has often blocked people from advancement. But keep in mind, Hegseth served in the Army National Guard, with three deployments—Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan—each lasting several months. Because he saw combat for a few months, he’s uniquely qualified to say that women aren’t suited for combat. (It is doubtful that he could pilot a fighter jet like the 200-plus female fighter pilots currently serving. But never mind.) His perspective on women in combat reflects the misogyny his mother has accused him of. But let’s not hold this against him—after all, it just makes him a “man’s man.”

Hegseth does have management experience. He was Executive Director of Vets for Freedom from 2006 to 2010, supervising a dozen employees. He ran the organization into the ground, but we know that failure is a great teacher. He later led Concerned Veterans for America as CEO from 2012 to 2016 with a staff of 30 to 40. He didn’t bankrupt the organization thanks to funding from the Koch Brothers. Still, under his leadership, the organization faced criticism for becoming a blatantly political operation rather than addressing veterans’ issues.

The current DOD Secretary served 41 years of full-time service, becoming a four-star general before retirement. In comparison, Hegseth spent 14 years in mostly part-time military service before his “retirement” in 2015. In the spirit of equity, this should not be a barrier. He led a platoon of 20 to 40 soldiers. Surely, managing the DOD’s $830 billion budget and 2.9 million personnel is just a natural progression from there.

It would also be grossly unfair to make an issue about Hegseth being forced out of the National Guard Reserves (aka Individual Ready Reserve or IRR) in 2021 because of five tattoos—two Bible verses, Matthew 10:34 and Psalm 144:1, a Jerusalem Cross, Spartan Helmet, and the phrase, “Deus Vult,” which is Latin for “God wills it”—that are associated with the Crusades, White Supremacy, Christian Nationalism, and far-right Christian militancy. Rather than criticizing these, we should see this as free speech, even though the U.S. military does not. Further, if we value inclusion, shouldn’t we make room for Hegseth’s anti-Muslim hatred?

With a BA in Political Science from Princeton University and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, Hegseth is an accomplished academic. As we all know, the elite are often discriminated against. It would be grossly unfair to hold his Ivy League education against him—or the fact that he used the GI Bill to fund his Harvard degree.

Since Hegseth’s history of public drunkenness has not persuaded him to join an AA Group, his “promise” to stop drinking when he becomes the DOD Secretary, an intense, high-pressure position, demands an appeal to equity to render his denial as equivalent to joining AA and working on sobriety.

Finally, Hegseth is an Evangelical Christian. His membership in this minority group should not be a factor in judging his qualifications. We should respect his faith, even as he advocates for a Christian Nationalist agenda and will work to make America a Christian nation.

Isn’t it wonderful that Trump, who disparaged Kamala Harris as a “DEI hire,” has had a change of heart and is seeking to make his own DEI hire through his nomination of Pete Hegseth? Or is Hegseth’s nomination what the radical right means by meeting merit-based qualifications?

I published a shorter version of this article on December 8, 2024. Still, I am republishing it with a new introduction because, as above, Trump’s brutal attack on DEI and Civil Rights does not square with his meritless choice of Pete Hegseth. This is a sad day in America, but then that is true of every day in America under Trump.

Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,457 days

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