An Open Letter to Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense Nominee

Re: Your Nomination for Secretary of Defense — A Blatant Spectacle of Opportunism, Recklessness, and the Sinister Nexus of White Nationalism and Sex Crimes

Dear Mr. Hegseth,

Congratulations on your nomination as Secretary of Defense. It’s a grim reflection of our times that a TV pundit with a trail of deeply troubling allegations is now poised to oversee the most powerful military on Earth.

Your résumé, if it can be called that, is a study in misplaced priorities. From hosting Fox & Friends Weekend (what, not good enough for the weekday show?) to championing divisive, faux-patriotic rhetoric, your most notable accomplishments involve stoking fear and outrage. But let’s move beyond your lack of relevant experience—there’s a much darker issue to confront.

The recently surfaced police report detailing allegations of sexual assault at a Republican women’s conference is damning, not just for the conduct it describes but for the grotesque power imbalance it reveals. According to the report, a woman (“Jane Doe”) confronted you, Mr. Hegseth, about your appalling treatment of women only for the evening to descend into a nightmare. After cornering her in a hotel room, you allegedly refused to let her leave, ignoring her pleas to stop while subjecting her to degrading and violent acts. The chilling specificity of the report includes details of you ejaculating on her body and issuing the contemptuous order to “clean it up,” underscoring a level of callousness that defies comprehension.

These allegations aren’t vague insinuations; they are meticulously documented in a police report supported by physical evidence, including Jane Doe’s unwashed dress and undergarments collected by a Sexual Assault Response Team nurse. Doe’s account of emotional distress, coupled with forensic data and witness interviews, leaves little room for doubt. Your dismissal of these events as “consensual” is as absurd as it is grotesque, given the well-documented power dynamics at play and the consistent narrative of manipulation and coercion.

This is not just about a lack of consent but a brazen display of entitlement and a disregard for basic human decency. The police report captures not only Jane Doe’s account but also your own self-serving revisions—an ever-shifting story that smacks of a desperate attempt to rewrite history rather than confront the truth.

Your actions that night—belligerence, coercion, and an utter lack of respect for other humans—make it clear you lack the basic moral fiber required of any leader, let alone one tasked with guiding the Department of Defense. You are unfit to lead a platoon, let alone an institution that demands the highest standards of honor and integrity.

And, oh yes—your tattoos. Your ink-splattered arms and chest aren’t just unfortunate lapses in taste; they’re declarations of division and hate, carved with arrogance and bravado. “Deus Vult,” your medieval battle cry of choice, isn’t merely a relic of the Crusades—it’s a modern slogan for extremists, proudly embraced by white supremacists and immortalized by terrorists like Anders Breivik (the Norwegian mass murderer who killed 77 people in 2011 to promote far-right ideology). Add to that the Jerusalem Cross, weapon motifs, and the 13-star flag tattoos, and you’ve got the perfect trifecta of performative extremism. These aren’t just bad choices; they’re loud, unmissable endorsements of exclusion, designed to inflame and intimidate—so much so that even the military, hardly a bastion of progressive ideology, saw them for what they are and turned you away. Your body isn’t a canvas of faith or valor—it’s a billboard for bigotry.

This nomination is not just a reckless insult to the men and women who serve with dignity—it is a threat to national security. Leadership requires discipline, self-control, and moral clarity, not opportunism wrapped in a veneer of patriotism. Your candidacy exemplifies the decay of standards in public office, and it must be rejected.

In another era, your nomination would have been dismissed as a farce. Today, it serves as a grim reminder of how far the bar has fallen. For the sake of the country, one can only hope the Senate has the fortitude to draw the line here.

Yours in the hope that you find gainful employment more suited to your talents—perhaps as a host for late-night infomercials, where substance and accountability are equally optional,

A person tired of mediocrity in power

P.S. If, during your next episode of fear-mongering cosplay on Fox News, you find yourself sharing a quiet moment with Mr. Trump, do remind him that the Department of Defense is not a loyalty rewards program. It demands leaders of principle, not second-rate sycophants whose greatest skill is pandering to the perpetually aggrieved.