Today’s must-read: The defense secretary nominee considers himself to be at war with Trump’s perceived foes, and it is by no means clear that he means ‘war’ metaphorically.
One Story to Read Todayhighlights a single newly published—or newly relevant—Atlantic story that’s worth your time.
Pete Hegseth may be “no less nutty than any of Trump’s more controversial nominees,” Jonathan Chait argues. And given the power Hegseth is likely to hold, “he is almost certainly far more dangerous than any of them.”
(Illustration by Katie Martin. Source: Roy Rochlin / Getty.)
For a few hours, Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of defense was the most disturbing act of Donald Trump’s presidential transition. Surely the Senate wouldn’t confirm an angry Fox News talking head with no serious managerial experience, best known for publicly defending war criminals, to run the largest department in the federal government. Then, in rapid succession, Trump announced appointments for Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The appearance of these newer and even more aberrant characters, like a television show introducing a more villainous heel in its second season, muted the indignation over Hegseth.
Obscured in this flurry of shocking appointments is the fact that Hegseth’s drawbacks are not limited to his light résumé or to the sexual-assault allegation made against him. Inexperienced though he may be at managing bureaucracies, Hegseth has devoted a great deal of time to documenting his worldview, including three books published in the past four years. I spent the previous week reading them.
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