After renewed calls for his impeachment and removal, this afternoon, Donald Trump’s handpicked Secretary of “War,” Pete Hegseth, with his greasy hair slicked back and an American flag handkerchief poking out of his pocket, released a video of himself that marked an all-new low point for our military. Throughout the 5 minutes and 47 seconds that he spoke, he said bizarre things like how “Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us… Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one and without apology.” Every word he said built upon the next and showed just how dangerous the world has become under his leadership.
He started by talking about the moment he first walked up to “President Trump’s War Department,” as though the United States military belongs to one person, Donald Trump. He bragged that he had “restored the Department of War to its core function, war fighting.” A claim that is equal parts delusional and historically ignorant. The Department of War was abolished in 1947, when President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act to restructure the military after World War II. The new military establishment was formally named the Department of Defense in 1949. The generation that actually won that war chose to move away from the name Department of War on purpose. They had helped liberate concentration camps and witnessed the horrors of Hiroshima. They understood, in a way that Hegseth and Donald Trump never will, that a democracy must frame its military as a force for defense, not as a permanent war machine. They made that decision to unify military leadership and improve coordination; they made it with moral clarity in mind and with the blood of millions still fresh in their memories.
Pete dug his hole even deeper when he rattled off what he saw as strengths but what really showed his weaknesses. “DEI is a Marxist ideology built to destroy us,” he said. “So we crushed it.” He followed that with, “Diversity is not our strength. Our unity is.” Here is what Pete Hegseth does not understand, or maybe does understand and simply does not care about: Marxism is a political and economic idea about the struggle between wealthy people who own businesses and the workers who make those businesses run. It argues that workers should have more control over how wealth is created and shared. Calling workplace diversity a Marxist plot means someone either does not know what words mean or is counting on his audience not knowing either. It is a scare tactic, plain and simple, designed to make people afraid of concepts they have never actually been taught.
He went even further, saying that “Men and women, they’re not the same thing,” as if he were telling us something we didn’t already know. But what he was really doing was making the case for pushing women out of military roles they have been excelling in for decades. Then he said that “the faith of our founding fathers belongs inside our formations.” Once again bringing his religion directly into our military, where Americans of every faith, and those who have no religious beliefs at all, serve our country. Our Constitution protects our freedom of religion, and that includes the freedom not to practice one. But apparently that doesn’t matter to Pete Hegseth.
He also declared that military bases “should not be renamed in the name of understanding white rage.” What he conveniently left out is that the bases he is talking about were named after Confederate generals. These were men who fought against the United States of America to preserve slavery, and somehow we ended up honoring them by putting their names on military bases where American soldiers train to defend the very country those men tried to destroy. Renaming those bases wasn’t about white rage. It was about finally recognizing how wrong it was to honor men who betrayed our country in the first place.
Yet he still wasn’t finished. He said that “being trans is a mental illness incompatible with military service.” He said “narcoterrorists should die, not be caught and released,” as though killing people is preferable to arresting them and giving them due process. He also said that “sealing the border and mass deportations are military functions.” Except that immigration enforcement is supposed to be handled by civilian agencies, and we have a law called the Posse Comitatus Act that limits the use of our military for domestic law enforcement for a reason. Then he turned his attention to the press, just like Donald Trump likes to do, and said that reporters are “free in America, but not free to roam our classified spaces here at the Pentagon.” Pete Hegseth has been trying to restrict journalists’ access to the Pentagon, a building paid for by the American people, because he doesn’t think the public has a right to know what is really happening inside our own military, and he would prefer to only share the things that might make him look good.
Everything Pete Hegseth ranted about today is exactly the culture war that America rejected on Tuesday. The boogeyman of the transgender community and the manufactured enemies and fabricated threats are exactly what voters showed up in record numbers to reject. They do not want the military used as a weapon against marginalized communities, and they want a Department of Defense that defends our interests, not one that starts wars like this administration loves to do.
Regardless of what Pete Hegseth parrots, diversity is our strength and it always has been. This country was not built by people who all looked the same, spoke the same language, or came from the same place. It was built by people brave enough to leave everything they knew and cross oceans for the chance to build something better. My own great-grandmother, not even an adult, boarded a ship in Europe with her younger teenage sister, where they made a long and treacherous journey by sea. They arrived in a country where they did not speak the language, where nothing was guaranteed, and they built lives anyway, because they believed in the promise of America. They did what so many others have done, something that took more courage than Pete Hegseth has shown in his entire career. Millions of families have the same story. We are a country of people who came from everywhere, who brought different languages, traditions, and perspectives, and who built something together that no single culture could have built alone. Pete Hegseth can stand in front of his war sign and pretend that uniformity is unity, but he is wrong. The unity of this country has always come not from sameness but from the decision to build something together despite our differences. If he is afraid of people who do not look like him, that is his limitation, not ours.
He also said that “Patriot extremism, it’s not a thing. Patriots are now in control.” Except that patriot extremism is very much a thing. In fact, it is the very foundation on which the entire MAGA movement was built. We are talking about misguided, misaligned, and weaponized patriotism. People who claim to love this country so much that they are willing to attack the very institutions that make it what it is. They wrap themselves in the American flag, call themselves patriots, and then turn around and attack our democracy in the name of saving it. January 6th is a perfect example. So is the politically motivated assassination of Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their beloved dog Gilbert.
He then demanded another $350 billion in military funding and called for Congress to push it through in a lame-duck reconciliation bill before Democrats take control in January. “We need every vote from every patriotic member of Congress,” he said. He isn’t just asking members of Congress to vote for more military spending. He is telling them that supporting his demands is what makes them patriotic, which means anyone who votes against him is somehow less American. The timing of this is no coincidence. This is urgent for him because he knows that come January, the next Congress will have subpoena power over his department, and he is trying to get his hands on every dollar he can before that accountability arrives. This isn’t just about funding his wars. It’s about making sure he has the money and political protection he needs before he is finally forced to answer for what he has done.
He also addressed what he called the “sham articles of impeachment” filed by “a disgruntled, defeated congressman along with all his Democrat allies.” He was talking about Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, not a Democrat. Massie has filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, accusing him of all sorts of constitutional violations. Then Hegseth tried to connect two things that don’t have anything to do with each other when he said they “tried to impeach Trump twice,” as though they failed. Except they didn’t fail. The House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump twice. What Hegseth might have confused was that impeachment does not mean removal from office. The House votes to impeach, and then the Senate decides whether to convict and remove the person from office. Donald Trump was impeached. Twice. If the man running the Department of War doesn’t even understand how our own government works, that alone should disqualify him from holding the position. Then, almost unbelievably, he said that “it’s not about me,” only to turn around seconds later and complain that the other side is “obsessed” with him. It is always about him. Every word of this video was about him.
Then came the most dangerous part of the entire video. Hegseth looked into the camera and said, “To the troops, don’t blink. Ignore the noise. Never hesitate. You see, all this is politics. You do real things, so stay the course.” What he was really saying was that the “noise” he wants them to ignore includes a new Congress with oversight authority over the military, impeachment proceedings initiated by a member of his own party, and federal court orders that he has already been found to have violated. He was telling uniformed service members to disregard civilian oversight, congressional authority, and the judicial system. He was telling them to follow him, not the Constitution. That is exactly the kind of behavior that the oath of service was written to protect against, and it is exactly what Senator Mark Kelly had warned about a while back when he reminded military personnel that they are not obligated to follow unlawful orders. Hegseth then tried to reduce Kelly’s retired Navy rank, and a federal judge blocked it.
He closed by saying, “We are more determined than ever, more resolute than ever to finish what we have started. We will stand. We will fight. We will defend this republic from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” He had spent nearly six minutes attacking Democrats, going after the press, dismissing congressional oversight, mocking impeachment, and telling our military to ignore what he called political noise. Then he chose to talk about defending our country from domestic enemies. By domestic enemies, he means us, the voters. He means the Congress we just elected and the courts that keep striking down the Trump Administration’s policies. He means anyone who refuses to bend to this regime.
This wasn’t some impromptu video either. It was a carefully staged performance, with the camera angled from below to make him look powerful, standing in front of a sign that represents a deliberate rejection of 77 years of democratic principle: “Department of War.”
Pete Hegseth actually is not one of the good guys. His own mother, Penelope Hegseth, wrote him a letter in 2018 that said, “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say... get some help and take an honest look at yourself.” Former colleagues at both Concerned Veterans for America and Fox News described his drinking as an open secret. A New Yorker investigation documented incidents of him being restrained at a strip club, passing out on a party bus, and beer cans in the trash inside his office. He was confirmed to lead the most powerful military on the planet by a single vote, the Vice President’s tiebreaker, the narrowest margin possible. He is not a leader. He is not brave, and he has never been respected, and everything he does is driven by the desperation to become something he is not. The more than twenty service members who died in the war he helped push are the real patriots. The service members quietly doing their jobs and mitigating the damage he causes every day are the real patriots, not him.
Pete Hegseth said we will defend this republic from all enemies, foreign and domestic. He is right about one thing: we will do exactly that, just like Donald Trump told us to pretend he was on the ballot on Tuesday. We did that, too. Millions of us showed up, stood in line, and sent the clearest message this country has delivered in a generation. We are not done. We are just getting started. Pete Hegseth can film all the propaganda videos he wants from whatever angle makes him feel powerful and important. It won’t change what is coming. A new Congress is coming, and with it, oversight and possibly his removal from office, if he is still even in his position by then. That is why he made this video and why he sounded so desperate. Because Pete Hegseth knows what is coming, and he is afraid. We are going to defend this country from enemies, especially from domestic ones like him. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: I know it is very early to be decorating for Christmas, but after the past two years, when I barely managed to get any decorations up besides the Christmas tree, I decided to go all out this year and start right away. I’m trying to stretch this feeling of hope and joy as far as I possibly can, especially ahead of what I am sure will be a very trying few months as we wait for the new Congress to (hopefully) be seated in January. Are you all decorating early for the holiday season?
Links to sources used in writing this article:
At the War Department: We Stand. We Fight. We Defend the Republic. Official YouTube Channel
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hegseth-vows-keep-fighting-pentagon-defends-iran-war-2026-11-05/
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/mountain/news/2026/09/17/massie-hegseth-impeachment
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/hegseth-confirmed-secretary-of-defense/
https://www.history.com/articles/department-of-war-defense-name-changes
https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/05/media/maga-media-trump-midterms-fox-news-hannity-shapiro
Pete Hegseth is a danger to our democracy and our nation because he is just as incompetent and narcissistic as his bossman. I hope the new Congress gets rid of him quickly.
Hegseth is a dangerous man. He’s as mentally ill as his boss, but, sadly, physically healthy. His liver might not be, but that’s a small point. He’s a typical alcoholic - an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.