“Muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone.”
That’s how one European defense official described the priorities of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a bombshell new report from CNN on the growing concern inside the U.S. military over Hegseth’s leadership.
Hegseth might not disagree with the characterization. He’s made it his mission to focus his attention on the culture wars, wokeism, DEI, and what soldiers look like, and it’s creating “turbulence” inside the military he oversees.
Recent high-profile resignations and firings by Hegseth have also brought increased scrutiny at the Pentagon, with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll abruptly announcing he was leaving this week.
“You’re taking away three of the most seasoned combat leaders of a generation who are in a unique position to articulate battlefield requirements,” a former Army official said of Hegseth’s “forced exits” of Army Chief of Staff Randy George, former head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa Gen. Christopher Donahue, and former commander of U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command Gen. David Hodne.
This all comes against the backdrop of what is perceived as an increasingly unwinnable and also unendable Iran war, which is losing support by the day.
In March, opposition to the war was at 47.3%, and now, six months later, it’s at 55.7%.
None of this is helpful for Republicans who are campaigning in tight and uphill contests all over the country. They are already having to defend President Trump’s tariffs and burgeoning trade war with Canada, his impolitic comments about affordability “hoaxes,” and the sense that his priorities — building ballrooms and hosting UFC fights — are out of whack with voters.
The never-ending war in Iran is the last thing they want to be talking about.
Hopes that Trump can effectively wind the war down before the midterms have been whittled down to a nub — prediction markets don’t have peace talks occurring until 2027.
But he could make a move that improves the politics of this quagmire for him and Republicans in time for elections: fire Hegseth.
Hegseth’s net approval is at a miserable -22 — well below other Trump cabinet officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr.
His own commanders are publicly voicing their concerns about his leadership. Reports of critical shortages of missiles and other materials are bringing into question our military’s readiness. And stories of hellish conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including attempts by multiple sailors to jump overboard, are dogging Hegseth’s tenure. Not to mention earlier scandals over legally questionable drug boat strikes and improper use of Signal chats.
A change in leadership would have the practical effect of restoring order to the Defense Department, and the political effect of changing the narrative for Trump and Republicans at a crucial time, just two months before midterm elections.
Hegseth doesn’t want to do this job anyway, it appears. Despite being busy prosecuting a war that’s disrupted the global economy, killed and injured hundreds of U.S. troops, and made the region far more dangerous for our allies, he’s been seen on the campaign trail, stumping for candidates in Iowa and Kentucky — explicitly partisan, political moves that other Pentagon leaders have always avoided.
“We’re restoring the warrior ethos inside our department because that matters. We need guys like this man right here having our back in Congress,” he said of Rep. Zach Nunn in August.
As long as I’ve known him, Pete has wanted to run for president, and he’s reportedly said as much to friends and colleagues.
So Trump should do him, Republicans, and all Americans a favor, and cut him loose so he can go back to Fox News and focus on the things that matter to him: muscles, dudes in dresses, and testosterone.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.