Pete Hegseth's manly act is backfiring

[marmar]

Pete Hegseth’s manly act is backfiring
MAGA bros hoped the defense secretary would make them feel butch — with Iran war, he embarrasses them

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published March 13, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Pete Hegseth has an abnormal obsession with how he looks in photographs. This is not revelation: The defense secretary is well known for preening for the cameras with a level of self-regard that would embarrass most supermodels. But his fixation on striking a manly pose was confirmed in humiliating fashion this week when the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon banned news photographers for taking what was deemed “unflattering” photos of the former Fox News weekend host during a March 2 briefing about the Iran war.

The situation was a perfect synecdoche for Hegseth’s self-inflicted Sispyphean task of trying to be a big man. His efforts to butch himself up are so grasping that they inevitably backfire, revealing his vanity, insecurity and weakness — qualities that are very much the opposite of the John Wayne ideal of masculinity to which MAGA aspires. (Not that Wayne lived up to his own image either.) Liberals have always laughed at Hegseth and his self-owning, try-hard energy. But with the Iran war, even his fellow travelers in overcompensation, the MAGA bros, are starting to worry about the vicarious emasculation that is likely to come with his embarrassing failure to live up to his vaunted — and frequently espoused — “warrior ethos.”

Hegseth’s rhetoric is so alarming that it sometimes eclipses how he also can come across like an eight-year-old boy inventing dialogue for the villain in his G.I. Joe game. He likes to say things like, “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” and “violent effect, not politically correct.” It’s impossible to hear the secretary spout these rhymes and not picture how he must have practiced them in front of the mirror in his rumored makeup studio at the Pentagon, imagining himself the hero of an action movie, unable to realize that he’s making most listeners feel embarrassed on his behalf.

....(snip)....

To their slender credit, some MAGA dudes know that getting into a real war will backfire by disproving their fragile masculine fantasies. And with incompetent people like Hegseth and Donald Trump in charge, the odds of losing, which is experienced as emasculation on the right, is near 100%. So they’ve been trying to talk their leaders out of this foolhardy mission. Walsh called the war a “travesty.” Rogan said Trump voters feel “betrayed,” and he called the war “insane” as a political decision. Wilson, who has a personal relationship with Hegseth that likely tempers his typical inflammatory rhetoric, was more delicate. Still, he released a video expressing hope that the action would stay “limited” and advising Trump to get out quickly and avoid “the hubris of nation-building.” ........................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/03/13/pete-hegseths-manly-act-is-backfiring/

[underpants]

1. New word for me. I have many words for Kegsbreath that are not new to me

synecdoche
/səˈnekdəkē/
Synecdoche (si-nek-duh-kee) is a figure of speech where a part represents the whole (e.g., "all hands on deck" for workers) or the whole represents a part. It creates emphasis, vivid imagery, and concise, memorable language in literature and daily speech.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. And here I was, thinking...

that they’d misspelled ‘psycho douche’

[underpants]

4. 🏆

[NewLarry]

12. Why not both?

[Hey Joe]

22. Yours is a much more accurate descriptor.

[progressoid]

8. First thing I thought of was the movie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche,_New_York9
I didn't know it was a word as well.

Yesterday, I got a call from my endodontist who wanted to reschedule my appointment. She said they needed to, "tetris" some appointments. Took me a moment to realize how much sense this made.

[William Seger]

17. LOL, I had to look it up as soon as I saw it, and I copied the definition to paste here

... before seeing that that was the very first comment.

[Ilikepurple]

27. It's a great word and the title of an interesting film if you're a fan of Charlie Kaufman. Nt

[Blue Owl]

2. Kegsbreath is a vainglorious, flaming asshole

That tRump really knows how to pick the absolute worst -- and I mean WORST

[Wonder Why]

9. Ho picks them like he sees them and he can't see beyond his nose.

[malaise]

5. Nailed it

Rec

[Goonch]

6. ;-{)....

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

7. He likes to say things like, "maximum lethality, not tepid legality" and "violent effect, not politically correct."

And he loves to say "warrior ethos".... love loves the word "war"

[mdbl]

10. "incompetent people like Hegseth and Donald Trump in charge"

Most important statement in the entire article. The entire US govt is now run by incompetent people. It is now to the point that any normal person doesn't expect them to fix anything. Maybe that's their goal.

[Mysterian]

28. The USA is a failed state

Thanks, republicans.

[MineralMan]

11. Too Much Looksmaxing Affects Many Incels.

And there you have it.

[Pinback]

18. "Looksmaxing" -- excellent coinage!

I’ll add that to my vocabulary— thanks.

[MineralMan]

19. I didn't think up that word.

The Incels did. I like it, though.

[GreenWave]

13. Backfiring? As is IQ 45-47 equals minus 2's backside.

Witness the growing number of people passing out directly behind the Orange Menace.

[FakeNoose]

14. We looked at those photos, the ones he hated

... and they didn't look any different than any other photos we've seen of Hogsbreath. The guy is nuts.

[leftstreet]

15. DURec

[allegorical oracle]

16. It's a toss-up whether Pentagon Pete spends more time in front of mirrors or

frantically thumbing through a thesaurus for fresh synonyms of "warrior" and "lethality". Seems this administration's average maturation level is about 12-14 years old.

[Pinback]

20. "Walsh" and "Wilson" reference explained

I know who Rogan is (unfortunately) but had to scan the article for the other two. No complaints — it’s one of the hazards of snipping quotes.

In December, the head of Hegseth’s church’s denomination, Doug Wilson, celebrated the secretary as a counterweight to “men with a My-Little-Pony fetish.” Last year the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh applauded Hegseth for supposedly sticking it to “nagging” women who insist that gender does not disqualify them to serve in the military.

In other words, fellow self-deluded tough-guy impersonators. What a noxious crew.

[2na fisherman]

23. The Apprentice As Cinema Verite

Trump has staffed his reality TV regime with real-life characters chosen only for their appearance without regard to their qualifications or competence in applying any genuine knowledge and expertise to any role they must play. And there are real life consequences which will become harder to explain away as the deadly results and the costs of war become impossible to deny. And what if there's another 9/11 level attack when these cosplayers are in charge?
BTW, another thing Hegseth does to bolster his macho image is the wearing of very tight, ill-fitting suits in his vain attempt to exaggerate his muscular body. One can well imagine an SNL skit where he is so pumped up on waging war that he splits his suit and he rips it off yelling bare-chested , "USA USA! like a WWE wrestler.

[Dulcinea]

24. He HAS a manly act? Who knew?

Hegseth may be the biggest wanker in the cabinet, & that's saying something.

[DinahMoeHum]

25. South Park certainly had Hogsbreath's number. . .

[vapor2]

26. Took this prick 9 minutes to mention the fallen soldiers this morning

WTF? Had to complain about the media AGAIN