Pete Hegeth didn’t just melt down yesterday – he was trying to distract you from what had just happened with Donald Trump
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth – five words that should never have to be used together – is getting a lot of attention for angrily yelling at a reporter who dared to ask a fair question during a press conference yesterday. Hegseth is being lambasted for it, by the media and by those on social media, and he more than deserves it. But there’s an angle here that’s being overlooked.
Even if you’ve seen the video of Hegseth yelling at the reporter, you may not have seen the ten seconds that came before. Donald Trump was at the podium and received the question about his failed Iran gambit. Trump tried to respond – and I say “tried” because he came off like someone who wanted to angrily let loose and just didn’t have the strength to. That’s when Hegseth jumped in and loudly made a fool of himself in order to cover for Trump’s total lack of ability to respond properly.
We’ve seen this before, where a feeble and befuddled Trump couldn’t hack it in front of the cameras, and a member of his team had to take the lead. Remember Trump, JD Vance, and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office? Who exactly was operating as President of the United States in that moment? It sure wasn’t Trump. Nor did Trump seem in any way relevant yesterday when Hegseth had to take over the press conference and create a distraction after Trump laid an egg.
I believe we’re going to see more of this. Donald Trump’s babysitters increasingly aren’t allowing him to appear in public without a high profile member of his team alongside him to lead the way and, if necessary, go full ham in order to change the storyline away from Trump’s flat out inability to do the job.
