Welcome to Power Players, The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take an in-depth look at the key figures in American politics as the US reshapes itself and the world.• The most powerful woman in the world you’ve never heard of• The ‘swamp creature’ eclipsing JD Vance in the race to succeed Trump• The white nationalist at the heart of the Trump machine• The greatest hope of the Trump resistance is a 34-year-old immigrant• The 28-year-old Trump attack dog ripping up the Washington playbook• The ‘pro-white nationalist’ whose power over Trump grows every day

Welcome to Power Players, The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take an in-depth look at the key figures in American politics as the US reshapes itself and the world.• The most powerful woman in the world you’ve never heard of• The ‘swamp creature’ eclipsing JD Vance in the race to succeed Trump• The white nationalist at the heart of the Trump machine• The greatest hope of the Trump resistance is a 34-year-old immigrant• The 28-year-old Trump attack dog ripping up the Washington playbook• The ‘pro-white nationalist’ whose power over Trump grows every day

President Donald Trump has never made a secret of his all-purpose contempt for rules-based order, both at home in America and abroad. Rules, he believes, are for betas, pencil-pushers, and nerds – tools for the weak to try to neuter the strong. And in his second term, Trump has found the perfect dance partner to brand this philosophy into the US military: “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth.

And as the President has jettisoned campaign-trail commitments to avoid foreign entanglements in favour of more and more reckless and destabilising military actions, Hegseth’s implementation of that philosophy has become a growing danger to the entire world.

From the moment Trump tapped him for the top post at the Department of Defence – or, as his administration would soon take to calling it, the Department of War – Hegseth has been among the most controversial members of his retinue. A combat veteran, conservative activist, and former Fox News personality, Hegseth faced a bevy of serious accusations during his confirmation process: of sexual assault, of alcohol abuse, and of mismanaging funds at the veterans charities he once helmed. (Hegseth denied all these.) Less explosively, but just as importantly, Hegseth seemed to lack the........

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