Power-Pete Hegseth Wants White House

Former Fox News personality and all-round macho-man Pete Hegseth wants to be your next president, according to officials familiar with the self-proclaimed Secretary of War’s thinking. Those sources, who spoke anonymously in order to be frank about the Trump Cabinet member’s ambitions, told the Washington Post that Hegseth’s trip to Iowa on Monday suggests he may very well have his sights set on the White House. The Defense Secretary, 46, headed out to stump for GOP Rep. Zach Nunn in the battleground state, where presidential hopefuls have historically tested their mettle. He also stumped for Sen. Darline Graham in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina last week. He also showed up for congressional candidate Ed Gallrein in his successful primary run against incumbent Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie earlier in May. CBS notes that it’s rare for any sitting defense secretary to head out campaigning for candidates. Even Hegseth’s alleged “kill-them-all” orders during military strikes on suspected narcotrafficking boats in the Caribbean, slammed by legal experts as crimes against humanity, would likely prove an easier campaign sell than his tireless cheerleading for Trump’s war of choice with Iran. That campaign, which has included a U.S. airstrike on an Iranian school that killed 165 civilians, dozens of them children, is among the least popular conflicts since the advent of modern polling. A meager 28 percent of voters approve of the war, according to a CNN poll fielded in late July—just seven points below the 35 percent approval the network put Hegseth’s job performance at earlier in April. PG KO