NBC News reported last Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been telling friends he is eyeing a 2028 presidential run. There is just one problem: Hegseth has spent the last 19 months proving he’s unqualified for the job he currently has through a series of blunders and extreme Pentagon policies hallmarked by the disastrous Iran war.
After six months of war and the deaths of 18 American service members, the man who helped talk Trump into starting it is already thinking about his next job.
Hegseth’s poor case to become the next commander-in-chief:
- Got America into a war that hasn’t ended. Within the Trump cabinet, Hegseth was the biggest proponent of military action against Iran, and the conflict that he promised would be swift is now well into its sixth month, with 18 American service members killed and hundreds more wounded.
- Put MAGA influencers on the taxpayer payroll to sell his war. Hegseth’s Pentagon secretly hired conservative influencers with active government email addresses to amplify Hegseth’s agenda and attack critics of the Iran war, without disclosing whether they’re drawing a taxpayer-funded salary.
- Oversaw a bomb strike that killed over 100 children. On the first day of the Iran war, a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, killing more than 100 children. After promising an investigation into the bombing, Hegseth’s Pentagon has yet to release any findings publicly or hold anyone accountable for the tragedy.
- Leaked strike plans over an unsecured chat app, not once, but twice. Hegseth texted precise attack details for Yemen strikes into a Signal chat that accidentally included a journalist, then shared similar operational details with his wife and brother in a second chat the same day. A Pentagon watchdog found the breach put American personnel at risk.
- Gutted a vaccine requirement, and a trainee died. Hegseth ended the mandatory flu shot for recruits, and an outbreak at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland sickened more than 200 trainees and killed trainee Keon McDaniel, before the Pentagon quietly restored the requirement.
- Gagged the press corps that covers the Pentagon. Hegseth’s Pentagon ordered journalists to sign a pledge promising not to gather or report unauthorized information, even when unclassified, or lose their credentials. Nearly the entire press corps walked out rather than sign.
- Kept women and officers of color out of the top levels of the military. Hegseth personally intervened to strike Black and female officers from promotion lists across the Army, Navy, and Air Force, sidelining more than a dozen qualified leaders because of how they look, not how they served.
- Fired the Pentagon’s top lawyers to clear the way for illegal orders. Hegseth fired the Army, Navy, and Air Force’s top uniformed lawyers, the officers whose job is to tell commanders when an order is unlawful, saying lawyers should have “little influence” over military operations.
- Tried to punish a senator for telling troops to follow the law. After Sen. Mark Kelly urged service members to refuse illegal orders, Hegseth moved to strip Kelly of his retired Navy rank and cut his pension, forcing Kelly to sue the Pentagon to protect his own First Amendment rights.
- Ordered the killing of people at sea without proof of illegal activity or threat to the United States. U.S. forces have killed more than 200 people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, with the Pentagon consistently declining to provide evidence of their claims that those killed were trafficking drugs into the United States.
- Invited a Christian nationalist preacher to lead Pentagon services. Hegseth brought pastor Doug Wilson into the Pentagon to lead a worship service. Wilson has argued women should be denied the right to vote and that enslavers were on “firm scriptural ground.”
- Let troops carry personal firearms across military installations. Hegseth reversed a decades-old policy and opened forts, camps, bases, naval yards, and recruitment centers to personal firearms carried by off-duty personnel.
“Pete Hegseth can’t end a war he started, but he’s already plotting his next campaign. A defense secretary reckless enough to drag the country into a war he can’t finish, and dangerous enough to gut the officers and lawyers who might have stopped him, has no business asking for a promotion,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “Voters don’t want to hear about his future in politics; they want this war over and their troops home. Americans deserve a commander-in-chief who can handle the job they already have, not one who’s shopping for a bigger title in the middle of a disaster of their own making.”
Published: Aug 31, 2026