An “alpha male” at the Pentagon

(New York) Shortly after one of Donald Trump’s most unexpected nominations, some of his supporters expressed their enthusiastic agreement by repeating the same phrases on various social networks: “Pete Hegseth is an alpha male. They hate it. And to make matters worse, he’s white. »

The president-elect did not himself use the expression “alpha male” in appointing the Fox News host to head the Pentagon, an institution that employs nearly 3 million people, including 1.4 million military personnel on active duty and 1.3 million civilians.

But he mentioned Pete Hegseth’s most recent bestseller, The War on Warriors (The war against the warriors¹), work in which the former major in the National Guard, aged 44, denounces the feminization and “wokification” of the American armed forces.

“This book exposes the left’s betrayal of our warriors and explains how we must return our military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability and excellence,” Donald Trump said in a statement released last Tuesday.

A poorly qualified soldier

There were obviously several who pointed out that this appointment, like others of Donald Trump, flouts the very principle of meritocracy. Pete Hegseth’s military history is certainly honorable. Deployed with a Minnesota National Guard unit in Iraq and Afghanistan, this Princeton and Harvard graduate was twice decorated with the Bronze Star.

But this experience remains that of a junior officer. And it is not enhanced by a parallel managerial career which would destin him to lead a gigantic bureaucracy with an annual budget of nearly 900 billion dollars.

To what then does he owe his appointment? In Donald Trump’s eyes, a good face and a job at Fox News never hurt. But, in the case of Pete Hegseth, there is more.

A commentator at Fox News from 2014, this ultraconservative patriot became one of the co-hosts of the morning show in 2017 Fox & Friends Weekendwhere he first attracted the attention of Donald Trump by defending three soldiers accused of war crimes.

“We train our boys to be killing machines, then we go after them when they kill!” “, the president was indignant on Twitter before offering presidential pardons to two of the three soldiers, one of whom had been convicted of having murdered an Afghan detainee suspected of being a bomb maker.

Ending “wokism” in the armed forces

But the appointment of Pete Hegseth is also – and perhaps above all – due to the content of his new book, which echoes Donald Trump’s promise to purge the Department of Defense of its “woke” generals.

“Over the past three years […]the Pentagon, across all branches, has adopted the social justice warriors’ message of gender equality, racial diversity, climate stupidity, and the LGBTQA+ alphabet in its recruiting campaigns,” writes the author of The War on Warriorswhich was released last June.

“Meanwhile, promotions based on affirmative action have skyrocketed, with “precedents” being the most important factor in appointing new commanders. We won’t stop until black trans-lesbian women run everything! »

Two days after the presidential election, and even before his appointment as head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth gave an overview of his program to end “wokism” in the armed forces during a podcast show.

General Charles Brown, current chief of staff of the armed forces, has been in the crosshairs of American conservatives since he released a video evoking in particular his experience of racism in the air force after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“Council of Warriors”

Pete Hegseth’s threats could well come true. On the very day of his appointment, the Wall Street Journal released this exclusive information: Donald Trump’s transition team is considering an executive order establishing a “warrior council” of retired high-ranking military personnel with the authority to recommend the removal of three- and four-star generals who are deemed unfit in command.

In a column published by the New York Timesformer Republican senator and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel estimated that such a procedure would endanger two of the foundations of the American army, namely its political independence and its ethics.

“All soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Coast Guardsmen take an oath when they enlist in the military, not to a president or a political party, but to the Constitution,” he recalled.

During the podcast show on November 7, Pete Hegseth also returned to another main idea of ​​his book, namely that the presence of women in combat harms the operational capabilities of units.

“I’m simply saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles,” he said. It hasn’t made us more efficient or more deadly. This made the fights more complicated. »

He added: “We have all served with women, and they are wonderful. But our institutions should not encourage this in places where traditionally – not traditionally, in human history – men are more competent. »

An alpha male wouldn’t have said it any other way.

1. Pete Hegseth. The War on Warriors : Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us FreeNorthampton, Broadside Books, 2024, 256 pages