The defense secretary has floated a White House run with close friends and associates, two people said. And Hegseth sparked speculation with an event in Iowa this month.

I think he might just have a fetish for losing.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 month ago

    American politics is so fucking whack, but I’m still gonna say he has no chance and if I get egg on my face I get egg on my face.

    Big part of how Trump one was playing both sides with the tough guy act but also lying that he’d stay out of foreign entanglements. Hegseth is pure tough guy act, and also started and lost a war with Iran, so he has absolutely no ability to court the libertarian/isolationist-minded people on the right who felt burned by Bush. It seems like he’s just delusional and has bought into his own propaganda.

    • sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      1 month ago

      Right but imagine you are a hardcore MAGA supporter and found that Trump won’t be running for a 3ed term, where can you find someone shittier than Pete to elect?

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
        0·
        1 month ago

        You can’t win with just that one type of guy, is what I’m saying. There’s the macho nationalist type of guy on the right, absolutely, but there’s also the libertarian type that’s generally “anti-war” on the basis that war is the government doing stuff and the government doing stuff is always bad.

        In 2000, Bush ran as being more isolationist than Gore and staying out of foreign conflicts (after the failure in Vietnam, nobody wanted to be associated with that), then as soon as he got ahold of power started and lost pointless wars of aggression. So then Bush became unpopular on the right and Trump ran as an “anti-establishment” type (after the failure in Afghanistan, nobody wanted to be associated with that) claiming to be a “peace” candidate, and he won, and as soon as he got access to the levers of power he started bombing Syria but nobody really noticed or cared for some reason so then he just repeated the same lies and got into power again and immediately went and bombed Iran, and going forward nobody’s gonna want to be associated with that.

        There’s plenty of figures that are positioning themselves to step into that role next, like MTG, Tucker Carlson, and Tulsi Gabbard. The sorts of people who bought into Trump being a peace candidate are dumb as rocks and lack basic pattern recognition so they will absolutely just keep falling for the same trick over and over again. But they do need to be tricked and lied to for the right to have a winning coalition.

        It is kinda exciting on some level, like, say Tucker Carlson got his hands on the levers of power, he’d obviously start another war of aggression somewhere, but who really knows where it’d be? And when that war proves to be a hopeless debacle, who will be the one on the right to say that, unlike Tucker who just loves getting into pointless destructive conflicts (who could’ve predicted it?), they actually… you know what, I can’t do this, it’s not exciting, it’s literally just rebooting the same plotline over and over, and I’m gonna be forced to watch it until I’m dead in the ground.

        Point being, my prediction is that the Republican nominee will either be someone who has some pretense of being able to distance themself from the Iran War, or they will lose.

        • sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          1 month ago

          Thanks for taking the time. It’s a good read and very informative.

          I think you’re right but will have more confidence when I see the result of the midterm.

          I want to see how many Trump endorsed republicans will win vs Regular republicans.

          You’re words make lot of sense but the world we’re living in right now doesn’t so I guess will wait and see.

    • hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip
      0·
      1 month ago

      libertarian/isolationist-minded

      A perfect example of an oxymoron. Core libertarian ideology espouses completely open borders and international trade without government interference.

      They’re not libertarians, they’re just another version of big government neoconservatives that sympathize with fascists.

    • dreamkeeper@literature.cafe
      0·
      1 month ago

      Hegseth can easily be painted as a weirdo diva little bitch. Talks a lot of shit about manliness but had his very own makeup room installed in the Pentagon, he looks like an uncoordinated wimp when he exercises, he brags about realism and “lethality” but performed like an inept weakling against Iran.

      He’s also a known wife beater and former alcoholic which makes him look like even more of a pansy. Dude can beat on women but not our enemies.

      He’s extremely unpopular in the military and isn’t taken seriously there either. It took him 20 years to reach major, that’s beyond pathetic, and he was never more than a platoon leader.

      A competent Dem would portrait him as a loser manlet and it would work.

  • quick_snail@feddit.nl
    0·
    1 month ago

    Actually, I hope he does run. He would make it easier for progressive to win because everyone hates him.

      • hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip
        0·
        1 month ago

        Assuming we do have free elections at the time, nah. MAGA has been whittled down to about one-third of the voting bloc. They’ll get decimated by populist progressives. Establishment Dems will also get wrecked in the primaries.

        • MBech@feddit.dk
          0·
          1 month ago

          If I’ve learned anything these past 10 years, it’s never underestimate the idiocy of the average american voter.

          Just because MAGA is smaller than previously, doesn’t mean the voters who don’t like MAGA anymore, don’t still prefer republicans.

      • quick_snail@feddit.nl
        0·
        1 month ago

        Again, you could only say that if the US was a democracy.

        It’s a one party system with rampent voter disenfranchisement and first past the post.

        Trump has never had more than 40% approval. He didn’t win the election. He stole itbin a rigged system.

        If the US had a democracy, he never would have been able to steal the Presidency. Because he had never been the candidate of choice.

      • SailorMoss@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        1 month ago

        He got us involved in an extremely dumb and pointless war and lost. If that doesn’t scream prime Republican presidential nominee material; I don’t know what does.

        If I was a bettin’ man he’d be on my 2028 shortlist.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      1 month ago

      There’s no “war with Iran”. When did it begin? When did it end?

      In reality it’s been decades/centuries of genocidal imperial terrorism in an attempt to violently control the region, the people, and resources there.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    Gonna try and pull a Putin with Trump?

    Take Trump as his running mate, then if he wins resign so Trump can be President again.

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 month ago

      That is against the constitution. The 12th amendment says if a person is ineligible for president they are also ineligible for VP

      Only thing possible is running for congress and then being speaker of the house, then both VP and President resign.

      • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 month ago

        Ah you’re right. I had to go back and read the specific text. Been so long since I have sat down to read any of it I had forgotten that was covered.

        I stand corrected

  • qarbone@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    Just hand him a beer and he’ll forget when he’s supposed to be running. Daft cunt.