As he declared a “decisive military victory” over Iran on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeated his favorite self-arousing monosyllable as he read a list of regime leaders.
“Dead…Dead…Dead…Dead…Dead,” Hegseth said, his Stars and Stripes pocket square making his death chant seem even less American.
He then said, “I skipped over a bunch and I could go on and on and on to include the new so-called new Supreme Leader, wounded and disfigured.”
But the new leader is 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei. He is the son of 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war and headed the death list Hegseth recited as proof of an historic triumph. What the Trump administration insists on calling regime change involves replacing the leader with someone 30 years younger who now has a personal vendetta.
A statement attributed to the successor son on Iranian state TV in early March hardly sounded less radical.
“I had the opportunity to visit [the former Supreme Leader’s] body after his martyrdom. What I saw was a mountain of strength, and I heard that his healthy hand was clenched in a fist.”
He added, “The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely continue to be used.”
And because Iran is an actual deep state, the list of other replacements no doubt also went on and on. Iran was thereby able to keep a hand on that lever of the Strait of Hormuz even as Trump set a deadline for 8 p.m. Tuesday to reopen the strait or “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.“
Trump made the threat on Truth Social and shocked even some of his reflexive supporters. Hegseth had been pledging unrelenting “death and destruction from above without mercy and no quarter,” but that had seemed just a toy soldier underling’s bloodlust. The seemingly unhinged president of the United States was pledging to wipe out a civilization that began 10,000 years ago in the Zagros Mountains, which happen to sweep down to the now strategic strait.
Yet, even some part of Trump himself understood this was extreme. He softened the threat in that same post with “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
And, because he is Trump, he further weakened the threat with a lie.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.“
Anybody who has followed him had to bet he would again prove Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO.) But there was enough uncertainty to generate a global scare followed by residual global anger when he did. And Trump will, as always, look for somebody to blame.
The most likely target is the preening popinjay who has insisted on being called the secretary of war rather than of defense, while Trump is calling himself the president of peace. Trump has already fired a cosplaying secretary of homeland security who was fond of dressing up in tactical gear for ICE raids.
Back when he was an officer in the National Guard, Hegseth posted on X a poolside photo that revealed he is cosplaying even when shirtless.
Among those who took note of an outsized tattoo on his bare chest was a U.S. Navy intelligence officer named Travis Akers. Akers had been in the seminary on his way to become a Baptist preacher when 9/11 inspired him to enlist. Akers recognized the tattoo as not just a crucifix, but a Jerusalem cross dating back to the 12th century and the time of the Crusades against the Muslims.
“Coming from a faith background and also having a background in world history and world religions, I instantly recognized the symbology that he had that was being displayed there with his tattoos,” Akers told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
“If he’s willing to put a permanent symbol on his body that represents Christianity over Islam, that just kind of tells you something.
And, along with the Jerusalem cross on Hegseth’s chest was a Crusader battle cry in Latin on his inner right bicep.
“Deus Vult,” it says, meaning, “God Wills It.”
Akers took note of the tattoos and their significance in a group chat. He also expressed his concern that, unbeknownst to him, came to the attention of the commanding officer of the District of Columbia National Guard unit, where Hegseth was serving after deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Hegseth was poised to assist in providing security at newly elected President Joe Biden’s inauguration when he got a phone call ordering him to ”stand down.” The Crusader Cross and Deus Vult had also been embraced by the Proud Boys and various Christian nationalist groups. He had been designated a possible ”insider threat.”
In his 2024 book The War on Warriors, Hegseth says that the incident prompted him to leave the military.
“I joined the Army in 2001 because I wanted to serve my country. Extremists attacked us on 9/11, and we went to war,” he wrote. “Twenty years later, I was deemed an ‘extremist’ by that very same Army … the military I loved, I fought for, I revered … spit me out.”
But Hegseth remained a fixture on Fox News, and Trump liked the way he looked and sounded. Hegseth was hired, tattoos and all. A former National Guard officer with a reported history of excessive drinking was appointed Secretary of Defense in the realm of Trump Vult.
Nobody was more subservient and sycophantic than the new self-described Secretary of War. Hegseth was MAGA-meets-Macho and never missed a chance to express displeasure with Fake News. Trump seemed only pleased, so Hegseth became all the more the Secretary of War. He clamored to start one, speaking as if Trump and God both vult. And so what about the Strait of Hormuz?
For all the talk at Wednesday’s briefing of an historic victory, Hesgeth’s career may fall victim to the war he helped launch. Akers offered the considered opinion of a retired intelligence officer who has followed the developments from afar.
“Hegseth oversold this whole deal to Trump, and it was never something that Trump truly wanted,” Akers said. “And for him to listen to Hegseth over the words of his vice president, his Secretary of State, General [Dan] Caine.…”
He added, “I think Trump is certainly going to look for a scapegoat because he’ll never accept the blame himself. He’s going to find someone else to pin it on.”
And Trump may go into a fury if the ceasefire breaks down and he has difficulty reinstating his dire threat.
“Well he’s handcuffed himself at this point. I really just don’t see any way that he can go back to his threats, because now they’re going to call his bluff,” Akers said.
He predicted, “There’s definitely going to be a firing in the near future.”
The fate of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi can be summed up with the same monosyllable that made Trump famous in his reality TV days
“Fired…Fired…”
And nobody should be surprised if Hegseth joins the list.
“...Fired.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
