Peter Brian Hegseth is an Iraq War veteran and former alcoholic with a rape allegation, a crusader’s mentality (and crusader’s tattoos), and a genuine disdain for women and fat people. He has written multiple books arguing that the Pentagon, of all places, is too “woke,” and is apathetic towards war crimes and human rights violations—potentially committing some of his own this year. And his own mother described him as an “abuser of women” who “belittles, lies, cheats, [and] sleeps around.” With a résumé like this, it’s only fitting that he serves as President Trump’s defense secretary.

Hegseth’s year began more tumultuously than perhaps any of Trump’s Cabinet picks. While he was ultimately successful in getting the role, his January confirmation involved intense scrutiny regarding the sexual assault and workplace misconduct allegations against him and his extremist views on war, DEI, and Muslims.

One whistleblower report detailed his raucous time as president of the Koch Brothers–backed Concerned Veterans of America, a three-year span in which he was allegedly often intoxicated while on the job, even getting so drunk that he needed to be carried out of the organization’s events. “A Fox News contributor, with the rank of captain (at the time) in the National Guard, and the CEO of a veterans’ organization … was in a strip club trying to dance with strippers,” the whistleblower wrote.

Hegseth stepped down as CVA president in 2016, and the very next year was accused of rape by a woman identified as “Jane Doe,” who told police that the then–Fox News anchor assaulted her at a Republican women’s conference. Hegseth eventually settled the case for........

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