For the second time in as many months, I am returning to ask when the Democrats and their media allies will apologize to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. President Trump announced Hegseth's nomination for his Cabinet back in November, and what followed was a barrage of Leftist hate and a smear campaign.
Pete Hegseth, they claimed, was a "known white supremacist" according to MSNBC, with Attorney Maya Wiley claiming Hegseth was an extremist saying, "Let's remember, when we're talking about the Secretary here, and Hegseth and his white supremacist and extremist tattoos on his body, he is also a person, if he is in this job, will be having a discussion about Donald Trump about sending the military into communities to police U.S. citizens."
The Center for American Progress penned a January 10, 2025, op-ed that said Hegseth was "unfit to lead the Pentagon."
"President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to lead the DOD flies in the face of these requirements. Hegseth lacks the qualifications, credibility, and leadership experience to steer the Pentagon, and his nomination reflects a broader pattern in Trump’s administration picks: a preference for loyalty above all else. Hegseth’s lack of experience is a stark contrast to former secretaries of defense such as Robert Gates or Leon Panetta, who previously managed complex government agencies such as the CIA (both Gates and Panetta) or the Office of Management and Budget (Panetta). Hegseth also lacks the depth and variety of past leadership positions that previous secretaries, including Mark Esper and Ashton Carter, gained through a long career in and out of government," the op-ed read. They also said Hegseth "lacked the resume for a demanding job."
"Hegseth served as an Army National Guard officer from 2002 to 2021," the op-ed continued, "with combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, leading the Pentagon is a vastly different challenge. The DOD is a behemoth, with close to 3.4 million civilian and military personnel and an $850 billion budget for fiscal year 2025. Its operations span more than 80 countries and include maintaining the nuclear arsenal and delivering disaster relief. The scale and complexity of the Pentagon’s operations demand leaders who can unify a vast workforce, manage intricate systems, and balance military effectiveness with fiscal responsibility."
They also smeared Hegseth as an abusive spouse, using the totally reliable, totally not vindictive statement from the ex-wife of Hegseth's brother as proof. Hegseth's actual ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, quickly debunked those accusations. Then they said Hegseth had an "excessive drinking" problem, which is rich coming from the party of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris.
As I wrote shortly after the New Year, having failed to derail his nomination, Democrats and the media spent the first three months of Secretary Hegseth's tenure making sure he had 100 percent negative coverage. As of last April, the Army had met 85 percent of its recruitment goal; it met that goal in June, around the same time Hegseth oversaw the successful bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. By December, the Army had its best December in more than a decade, boasting 350 daily enlistments and more than 14,000 in the Delayed Entry Program.
At the start of this year, Hegseth oversaw the successful extraction of Venezuelan tyrant Nicolas Maduro without the loss of a single American life. In the first 12 hours of Operation Epic Fury, after nearly 900 strikes, the U.S. had suffered no American casualties. This morning, unfortunately, we learned that three service members were killed and five more were seriously wounded. Compare that to the tenure of Biden's Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, who lost 13 military members and had 45 more wounded during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.
On top of that, Austin failed to inform President Biden of his stint in the ICU, which seems to me to be some pretty vital information. Even Democrats were calling on Austin to resign after that.
Hegseth called Operation Epic Fury the "the most lethal, most complex, and most-precision aerial operation in history."
Overnight, on President Trump’s orders, the Department of War commenced OPERATION EPIC FURY — the most lethal, most complex, and most-precision aerial operation in history.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 28, 2026
The Iranian regime had their chance, yet refused to make a deal — and now they are suffering the…
" For almost fifty years, Iran has targeted and killed Americans, always seeking the world’s most powerful weapons to further their radical cause. Last night, unlike any previous president, President Trump began dealing with this cancer," Hegseth wrote on X. "The United States did not start this conflict, but we will finish it. If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you."
That "most lethal, most complex, and most-precision aerial operation" happened under Hegseth's leadership. His critics, once again, have been proven wrong.
But I won't hold my breath for the mea culpas.