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Pete Hegseth, the embodiment of Trump's war in Iran
The US secretary of defense, a former Fox News host, has ardently defended the operation against the Islamic Republic. He has disregarded rules of engagement and boasted about American supremacy.
By Piotr Smolar (Washington (United States) correspondent)
Published today at 8:00 pm (Paris), updated at 8:15 pm
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US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and US President Donald Trump at the 'Shield of the Americas' summit in Miami, Florida, on March 7, 2026. KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS
"Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle." No one was surprised on Tuesday, March 10, when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth quoted the Book of Psalms at the end of his opening remarks to journalists. This was the third joint press conference with the chief of the General Staff, General Dan Caine, about the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran. Listening to Hegseth, it seemed the English language lacked superlatives powerful enough to describe how the enemy was being crushed.
The contrast between the two men was striking. Caine appeared calm, courteous and factual, never indulging in overstatement. He found the right words to speak about fallen soldiers and acknowledged Iranian resistance. Next to him, Hegseth, 45, seemed agitated and belligerent, mixing partisan controversy with attempts to explain a war that a majority of Americans opposed. "Joe Biden didn't even know what he was doing," he said on March 2, after explaining that Donald Trump had "all the latitude in the world" to decide the timing of combat operations. "No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars," he summarized. "We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives."
A few weeks earlier in Nashville, Tennessee, at a convention of conservative media, the secretary of defense praised "Western Christian" values" in a world beset by "dangerous and godless foreign ideologies that sow doubt, confusion and death." The Iranian regime, he said, was a prime example. Having previously described himself as a "recovering neocon," Hegseth now passionately champions the largest American military operation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Alongside Trump, he is the face of a war lacking an urgent justification, clear objectives, or strategy.
Extrajudicial killings
Until recently, Hegseth had stood out with viral videos of himself doing push-ups and lifting weights with soldiers. At the Department of War – the new name used by the administration, though not confirmed by Congress – things have changed in the space of a year. No more talk of climate, no more "woke garbage" no more inclusion and diversity programs. Only the "warrior culture" promoted by the former Fox News host matters. Without any qualms, Hegseth has turned the Pentagon into an instrument of Trump's hardline immigration policy. He deployed forces to the Mexican border to make it impenetrable, then facilitated the dispatch of the National Guard to Los Angeles, California, and Washington, DC.
Above all, the secretary of defense took obvious pleasure in leading the campaign of strikes against drug traffickers' boats in the Caribbean in the fall of 2025. No evidence was provided regarding the cargo or the identities of those on board. More than 150 people were killed on about 40 boats. But Hegseth defended these extrajudicial killings by claiming they were acts of "narco-terrorism" threatening America. On March 8, he appeared on CBS to discuss Iran. Asked about the increased risks facing US soldiers, he replied: "The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they're gonna live." All Iranians, therefore. "Killing for sport is an evil, and Pete Hegseth is yet another sinister angel of death let loose by MAGA fascists at the edge of an abyss," wrote Steve Schmidt, a former Republican adviser to President George W. Bush and then Senator John McCain, in his daily newsletter on Tuesday.
In December 2025, the independent inspector general overseeing the Department of Defense released his report on one of the scandals that marked Hegseth's first year at the helm: "Signalgate," named after a private messaging app where senior administration officials discussed the campaign of strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen in March 2025. A journalist from The Atlantic had been mistakenly added to the chat. National security adviser Mike Waltz was subsequently dismissed by Trump. But it was Hegseth who shared operational details about capabilities and targets, apparently to boast.
Unprecedented purges
With his graying hair slicked back with gel and an American flag poking out of his jacket pocket, Hegseth is a secretary of defense made for the stage. Aside from his past as a soldier, including deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, he had never led an administrative body, nor even a significant troop deployment, before taking charge of the Pentagon, which has a $961 billion budget. Trump chose him primarily for his television presence and his rants on Fox News, a channel the president avidly watches. He promoted Hegseth despite numerous scandals reported in the press about his alcoholism, treatment of women, and financial mismanagement at the veterans' organizations he led.
For nearly a year, the Pentagon turned its back on journalists. Press conferences became exceedingly rare, while Hegseth carried out unprecedented purges among senior officers, searching for any sign of supposed leftism or "woke" deviation. New, unacceptable rules were imposed on traditional media outlets in order to remain accredited at the Pentagon. In October 2025, they refused to sign the official 21-page document and packed up. They were replaced by ideologically aligned influencers. Among them: former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, disgraced by a sex scandal and now a host on the online channel One America News Network, and the conspiracy theorist and Islamophobe Laura Loomer.
The war in Iran forced the Pentagon to return to more traditional communications. Journalists returned to the building. Suddenly, the questions became incisive again, and Hegseth grew irritable and aggressive. On March 4, he accused the press of distortion, focusing on the first American fatalities. "When a few [Iranian] drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front-page news. I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad – but try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step." How can this feeling of being able to control everything – the entry into a conflict, its course and its conclusion – not be seen as a sign of arrogance, or indeed blindness?
Piotr Smolar (Washington (United States) correspondent)
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.