Pete Hegseth's Nomination Maybe In Trouble. No, Not Because Of The Extremist Tattoos Or The Rape Allegation.
Pffffft, those are features not bugs in MAGA land!
And how is this game of whack-a-mole going with Donald Trump’s entirely unqualified team of kid-touching, paste-eating Cabinet nominees?
Well, we are currently laughing our asses off because Trump has just announced that his nominee for NATO ambassador will be a man named Meatball McPeenerToilet, AKA Matthew Whitaker, who briefly served as Trump’s (acting) attorney general.
Y’all remember Meatball? He was a legend of ineptitude and clownfuckery.
We have absolutely no idea why Trump thinks Meatball would be a good NATO ambassador, except that we all know Trump wants to destroy NATO, so might as well stick any mouthbreathing buffoon who used to design luxury toilets for large dongs over there. It’s not like anybody Trump could pick is in danger of doing a good job.
Really, Trump’s latest nominees seem like he’s reached that point where he doesn’t care. (Because surprise, he’s lazy and he’s not up for the job.) Transportation Department? Here’s a Fox News guy. Education? Trump hates education, here’s the wrestling lady. Has he picked Dr. Oz for something yet? Sure, Medicare and Medicaid, why not!
At this point, if Trump sees you on TV, you are in danger of a Trump administration job. Were you in that Wegovy commercial? Congrats on your ambassadorship!
Best to stay focused for now on the main four Team Of Evil Dipshits — Gaetz, Gabbard, Hegseth, Kennedy — until we’ve ruined their nominations as thoroughly as possible.
So here’s a Pete Hegseth update!
The Washington Post reports that some on the Trump team are reconsidering his nomination to be the single most out-of-his-league Defense secretary in US history.
Yep! Don’t let up, people.
It’s not the white Christian nationalist Crusades “Deus Vult” circlejerk tattoo on his bicep, the one that got him flagged as a possible insider threat from his National Guard unit. In Trumpland, being a possible insider threat is a feature, not a bug.
And it’s not that Hegseth was accused of rape and then paid off his accuser. (He denies it and says he was simply trying to protect his job at Fox News, which is famously frowny to sexual assault.) That is also a feature, and not a bug, in the world of MAGA. It’s not like anybody is going to outshine that particular boss in the “sexual assault allegations” department.
No, it’s that Trump didn’t know about the rape allegation, because Hegseth didn’t tell him about it, and Hegseth wasn’t vetted, because the Trump team is full of morons who don’t vet people. Trump doesn’t like not knowing things, or being caught off guard or startled. He doesn’t like looking like an idiot. (Yeah, yeah, make your jokes about how he looks like an idiot every time he opens his ugly little thin-lipped mouth. No, go on, make them, because they’re true.)
The Post says “senior officials” are rethinking the Hegseth nomination, and obviously those “senior officials” made sure this got in the newspaper. They’ve now seen the complaint from the victim’s friend — the victim reportedly signed an NDA with Hegseth — and we guess it’s bad:
The transition team was caught by surprise by the detailed allegations and now fears more negative revelations about Hegseth, said the person familiar with the complaint. “There’s a lot of frustration around this,” the person said. “He hadn’t been properly vetted.”
Hegseth’s lawyer says the police investigated in 2017 and found the rape allegations to be “not true,” which is not quite how police officers phrase such things, but whatever, it’s his lawyer. They didn’t bring charges. That’s what’s true.
And of course, Steven Cheung, the dignity-free dork who drinks Trump’s dirty bathwater in exchange for money (and will do so as his White House comms director) is saying that Trump is standing by his man.
We will all of course be very surprised when/if a whole lot more dirty secrets come out about Hegseth. He strikes us as the type. Maybe the New York Post will have to add his name to the list of nominees they’re begging Trump to drop. Or maybe they won’t, since Hegseth is also a Rupert Murdoch employee. (UPDATE! Here comes the Wall Street Journal!)
ANYWAY.
Speaking of Murdoch employees, Hegseth’s dipshit “Fox & Friends Weekend” buddy Will Cain is having a whole temper tantrum about the way everybody is attacking his poor friend over his white nationalist Crusades tattoos, and says he should sue them for defamation! (It is hard to put into words how very incredibly stupid Will Cain is, but this post and this post should give you a start.)
Cain whined (podcast video at the link):
CAIN: This is an incredible, incredible man with the right values, a flawed man who has made mistakes in his life, but a good man who wants to live up to his values and dearly loves the United States of America.
That’s how white conservative fascist guys always talk about each other. When they say somebody is “godly,” file a restraining order.
CAIN: This tattoo issue is nothing short of defamatory, and I’m waiting for the army of lawyers to start attacking the mainstream media for — look, I’m an attorney, I went to law school, for a public figure the standard is malice or reckless disregard for the truth. That is malice. That is malice.
If that is some type of white nationalist symbol, why would he be blaring it across the news channel to a national audience, millions of people watching? That’s the Jerusalem Cross.
That is a cross that has been used since the Crusades, since 1096, it’s still used in bibles. And I think he’s right, for them to attack that right there as white supremacist is nothing short of defamatory, not just towards Pete, but towards historical literacy, exposing yourself as an idiot.
He’s lying. The tattoo that’s the primary issue is not the ugly Jerusalem Cross on Pete Hegseth’s chest, it’s the ugly “Deus Vult” one on his bicep.
But yes, both of those symbols came out of the Crusades — note that in the minds of these sick freaks, the Crusades were a good time in Christian history, and Hegseth is obsessed — and yes, both of them are now tied to Christian nationalist extremist movements.
Politifact us, Politifact:
Today, the Jerusalem cross isn’t a common Christian symbol, nor is the phrase “Deus Vult,” said Matthew Gabriele, a Virginia Tech medieval studies professor.
However, both are popular among right-wing extremist groups, experts said. Flags bearing the crusader cross and the phrase “Deus Vult” were flown during a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. A gunman who killed eight people in 2023 in Allen, Texas, had swastika and “Deus Vult” tattoos.
The Jerusalem cross and “Deus Vult” are “an invocation of the claim that crusader violence and its atrocities (including the massacre of civilians) was legitimate,” said Tom Hill, president and executive director of the Center for Peace Diplomacy, a nonpartisan organization working to end and prevent wars.
“It is this bloody, militant intent that comes first when seeking to understand its current usage as a symbol for those pledging their allegiances in contemporary politics — and this is why it has been appropriated by the so-called ‘alt right,’” Hill said.
Put more simply: No fucking normal person gets that shit tattooed on their body. It’s only goddamned weirdos like this.
But again, that’s not why Hegseth’s nom might be in trouble, and it’s not that somebody says Hegseth raped them in 2017. It’s that Trump didn’t know about it, and he doesn’t like being caught off guard while making his shitty personnel decisions.
Bless his stupid heart.
[Washington Post / JoeMyGod / Politifact]
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He may look like an idiot, he may sound like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘏𝘦𝘨𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘩’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘏𝘦𝘨𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯 2017. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.
Of course it's something this petty, but if it tanks his nomination I'll take it.