The US has sent a ceasefire proposal to Iran after four weeks of bombing across the Middle East, according to reports in American media – but not everyone in his administration is ready for peace.
Asked about potential peace talks, the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the US “negotiates with bombs”. He claimed that “never in history” has a modern military force such as Iran’s been so quickly “obliterated”.
US President Donald Trump claimed that both Hegseth and General Dan Caine, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were “disappointed” by the prospect of a negotiated ceasefire with Iran.
Trump has previously said that Hegseth was the “first one to speak up” in favour of the war, which has so far cost the lives of at least 13 US service personnel, as well as more than 1,000 in Iran.
By contrast, Vice President JD Vance has been conspicuously absent from the public eye during the war, having long been a vocal proponent of overseas military interventions.
Hawk, veteran, TV personality
A former National Guard Major, Hegseth was appointed as Defence Secretary – since rebranded Secretary of War – for Trump’s second term after years as a host on Fox News.
He was narrowly confirmed by the Senate after Vance cast the tie-breaking vote, amid concerns about Hegseth’s lack of experience managing organisations in the face of the Pentagon’s three-million strong staff, as well as allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behaviour towards women. Democrats called him “dangerously and woefully unqualified”.
Hegseth’s hawkish, far-right conservatism was evident long before his arrival at the Pentagon. As a student he edited a conservative newspaper which, as he wrote, “strive[s] to defend the pillars of Western civilisation against the distractions of diversity” and described homosexuality as “abnormal and immoral”.
In 2021, Hegseth was removed from the National Guard group set to provide security for Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration over concerns raised about his tattoos of symbols and phrases linked to Christian nationalism and white supremacy. He has said his tattoos were only Christian symbols.
Evident also was his commitment to Trump, whose unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential elections Hegseth spread.
During Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, Democrats called him ‘dangerously and woefully unqualified’ (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty)Since his appointment, Hegseth vowed to bring back the “warrior ethos” to the Pentagon.
Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex, suggested that Hegseth was likely to be “relishing getting the US involved in various conflicts and exerting its military might”.
“He is… very Maga [Make America Great Again] but instead of being isolationist, he is America First by being very imperialistic like [deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller who is also influential and who Hegseth is close to and socialises with,” she said.
“Hegseth does seem to have an influence on Trump, but so does [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio. While Rubio is super hawkish – he leans more towards diplomatic solutions when they are present. Sensing that the war is raising gas prices by nearly 30 per cent in the US, Trump has started to signal that he and Iran are willing to negotiate. This is likely more the influence of people like Rubio.”
Hegseth ‘has the ear of the President’ – but Trump could still drop him
Dr Thomas Gift, director of the UCL Centre on US politics said there was every reason to think that Hegseth had the ear of the President behind the scenes.
“Even when Hegseth was a Fox News host, he was dictating elements of Trump’s leadership of the military, from calling on him to pardon US service members accused or convicted of war crimes, to lobbying for the killing of Iran’s major general Qasem Soleimani, to advocating for Trump to loosen military rules of engagement,” he said.
“Hegseth doesn’t just see the US playing a deterrent role. He wants to use that firepower to actively shape outcomes on the battlefield – elevating aggression over restraint and considering military force not as a last resort, but as a central instrument of American power.”
David Andersen, associate professor in US politics at Durham University, said that before the war Hegseth’s role appeared to be focused on culture war issues in the US military, including the so-called woke agenda largely focused around diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“This was largely about public image rather than capability, and his recent experience was as a commentator on Fox News. He did not seem to have much of a real agenda other than making the American military appear ‘tougher’ and ‘more aggressive’,” he said.
Trump and Hegseth have ‘purged most of the staff immediately around who had the capacity, expertise, and courage to tell him things he didn’t want to hear’ one US political specialist said (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)Now, however, he was likely to be supporting Trump’s existing ideas rather than planting new ones, Andersen said.
“Hegseth, while he seems personally motivated by Christian nationalist ideas, appears to be mainly motivated by a desire to please President Trump, particularly by pushing a masculine aggressive style,” he said.
Andrew Rudalevige, professor of government at Bowdoin College and specialist in US political institutions, noted that Trump and Hegseth had “purged most of the staff immediately around him who had the capacity, expertise, and courage to tell him things he didn’t want to hear”.
“This means a war run on instincts,” he said.
However, Rudalevige suspected that Trump may be starting to doubt Hegseth “given that if things were going well, the President would be taking full credit, not seeking to share responsibility”.
“I suspect Hegseth’s actual influence is limited – he is a reflection of the President’s ID,” he added. “But that won’t stop Trump from jettisoning him if it appears convenient to do so.”
The Pentagon was approached for comment.
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