Why are US Republicans losing faith in War Secretary Pete Hegseth?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/5/why-are-us-republicans-losing-faith-in-war-secretary-pete-hegseth

Good. More discord in the camp of the infidels, the kafir.

158 points · 35 comments · view on lemmy.world

35 Comments

OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world · 125 pts · 23d (3 replies)

Better question is why they ever had any faith in an unqualified alcoholic TV propagandist to head up the world’s largest military.

TheGoldenV@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 23d (1 reply)

Racism. It’s always what it boils down to

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 23d

Woaaaaah, hey. Let's not get overly reductionist. He's also LGBTQ-phobic, xenophobic...

NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 28 pts · 22d

Oh dont stop there.

His book indicates he doesn't understand history.

He was forced to step down from two veterans non profits, with accusations of financial mismanagement.

MushuChupacabra@piefed.world · 55 pts · 23d (4 replies)

Because he's a fucking idiot.

resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe · 23 pts · 23d (3 replies)

*Drunken idiot.

mrmisses@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 23d (2 replies)

Drunken fucking idiot

tacoplease@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d (1 reply)

Fucking drunken idiot

Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 21d

As an actual fucking drunken idiot, I will confirm that he is much worse.

yesman@lemmy.world · 39 pts · 23d (2 replies)

Why are Republicans criticising Hegseth?

Because they need a fall-guy for Iran. It's ironic because the things directly under Hegseth's control appear to have largely functioned as intended. That is the strikes on Iran have been carried out with minimal US losses. Don't @ me about war crimes like the Minab school, Republicans DGAF.

The problem with the Iran war is the decision to start it and the terms upon which it will end. We should launch an investigation into who's responsible for that.

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 22d (1 reply)

This is the real answer. Republicans don't give a shit that he's a drunken asshole, or that he's a moron doing stupid stuff like removing vaccine requirements among the soldiers, or that he's destroying military leadership. They care that they might lose elections and need to blame a non-elected person.

HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club · 7 pts · 22d

Yeah, especially as a lot of the criticism of the war rightly falls to the civilian leadership making idiotic decisions on how to fight the war.

jontree255@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 23d

If his strategy of “use all the bombs we have” was working they’d still have faith in him. As it stands now it might cost them the next election and all their donor money.

JiveTurkey@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 23d (1 reply)

Probably has nothing to do with him being a total moron.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d

That's an essential qualification in those circles.

NatakuNox@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 22d

The fact that they had faith in him in the first place, tells you everything you need to know.

DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 22d

Because he's an utterly unqualified talk show host.

But these dumbfucks keep voting for TV personalities, so I'm not sure what they're expecting.

_stranger_@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 23d

I'd call him an empty suit but he's so full of shit that'd be a lie.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 22d (2 replies)

Because they will do literally anything to avoid blaming the one man actually responsible for all of this.

In some weird monkeys paw situation or some shit, Trump has somehow just been able to skate through a literal life of crime, and it's like everyone has just collectively decided that it's fine when it's this one specific guy.... I know it's not, but it really almost feels supernatural. Probably more like blackmail on people.

It's just remarkable either way. He gets some strange additional benefit(s) of the doubt that nobody in the history of the office would ever get in a million lifetimes for the most idiotic shit. Like really? THIS guy? Out of all the guys to bestow this shit on...?

I cannot wait for the day that this man perishes. It will be the one fucking thing he can't skate away from. Like his piece of shit mentor Roy Cohn. Death always comes eventually. Hopefully he doesn't nuke the planet first.

content_educator_94@thelemmy.club · 5 pts · 22d (1 reply)

I hope his head blows up on live TV like in that movie scanners

You know, the flick that is the origin of that infamous head exploding gif

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 21d

Oh yes, I know Scanners. Big Cronenberg fan (def not my favorite of his though).

I'd be ok with him popping like a balloon like Alex Jones did

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX8-VGDK1vQ

toast@retrolemmy.com · 12 pts · 22d

[ just points at all of him ]

kyub@discuss.tchncs.de · 9 pts · 23d

Well, fascism doesn't require skilled people. It just requires loyalists. You can see that in many areas.

dregan@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 22d

Because he's a dumbass?

Malyca@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 22d

The man is as moronic as he is sadistic. He's also crippled by insecurity and that makes him very dangerous indeed.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 8 pts · 22d (1 reply)

because they are rather slow. wait till they wake up to whats happened to literally every facet of the federal government.

DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d

You have to have a brain to wake up.

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 22d (1 reply)

Oh, FFS, there is no reason that Al Jazeera has to capitulate on language like all the institutions based in America have, is there?

He's in the DoD. These stupid fratbro wants to be all muscular and tough and talk about "lethality" and war, but there is no reason anyone has to oblige his stupid 12-year-old brain.

grte@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 21d

Well, Al Jazeera is Qatari state media so they have some skin in the game on this one.

Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22d (1 reply)

He's smugly incompetent

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 22d

He’s smugly incompetent

He's got two Dunnings and two Krugers. Also, he can't do pull-ups with proper form.

pjwestin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d

Is the answer, "because he started an illegal war without the consent of Congress and immediately lost it?" Because the answer should absolutely be, "he started an illegal war without the consent of Congress and immediately lost it."

DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 23d

Never had any to begin with

hedders@fedia.io · 2 pts · 23d

Is it because he's an irredeemable See You Next Tuesday?

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 22d

*Kuffar. There are many of them.