With his jawline firm and his hair coiffed, Pete Hegseth was a good fit as a Fox News personality.

As the defense secretary – or Secretary of War, as his boss, Donald Trump would have it – he’s disastrous.

His most consequential test, America’s misguided war with Iran, has proven that beyond legitimate argument.

But for those who watched him for years as a rightwing cable news figure, it’s not exactly surprising.

“Hegseth’s distinguishing characteristic on Fox was his fervent support for American service members who had been accused of war crimes,” recalled Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, whose job it is to track the relationship between rightwing media and the Trump-led Maga world.

Trump, who watches Fox as if it’s his primary job, liked what he saw in Hegseth. And so, what Gertz calls “a B-level demogogue” jumped from co-host of the weekend Fox & Friends talkshow to the person sixth in line for the US presidency.

In his first term, Trump’s excesses were held back somewhat by qualified Pentagon leaders like James Mattis and Mark Esper.

But when he was elected a second time, Trump didn’t want those annoying restraints any more. Mattis and Esper, along with Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly, ended up publicly warning the nation that Trump was thoroughly unfit for the presidency. Kelly – a former four-star Marine Corps........

© The Guardian