Bolton had these connections in the first Trump term and squandered them. He’s burned. Hegseth gets to be the fresh dweey-eyed face of fascism, without the stink of loserdom and defeat hanging over his head. Past that, saying the quiet part out loud is how he got where he is today.
Now, is he capable of doing competent administration? Probably not. But neither was Bolton. Hegseth’s mostly just a tie-back to the right-wing media establishment, though. He’ll juice public approval for the next four years of wars in a way a mummy like Bolton can’t manage anymore. Doing the talking head circuit Dick Cheney style to slap a pile of Top Secret documents and NYT Op-Eds while insisting Bolivia has WMDs and Radical Islamic Terrorism will be his job. And he’ll excel at that.
Bolton had these connections in the first Trump term and squandered them. He’s burned. Hegseth gets to be the fresh dweey-eyed face of fascism, without the stink of loserdom and defeat hanging over his head. Past that, saying the quiet part out loud is how he got where he is today.
Now, is he capable of doing competent administration? Probably not. But neither was Bolton. Hegseth’s mostly just a tie-back to the right-wing media establishment, though. He’ll juice public approval for the next four years of wars in a way a mummy like Bolton can’t manage anymore. Doing the talking head circuit Dick Cheney style to slap a pile of Top Secret documents and NYT Op-Eds while insisting Bolivia has WMDs and Radical Islamic Terrorism will be his job. And he’ll excel at that.