These are serious times for the US Secretary of Defense. Just this week, President Donald Trump launched what he insists is a new war against Iran, his second this year.
Despite Trump’s claim that US forces had “obliterated” Iran’s military months ago, America’s adversary has managed again to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and is again launching missiles at US bases and at its allies across the region.
A major conflict in the Middle East would be more than enough for most administrations, but Trump’s White House is also trying to run Venezuela remotely, following a special forces raid to abduct its president earlier in the year, and is blockading Cuba – while reportedly drawing up plans for a possible invasion there, too.
This is life-or-death stuff, on which the fate of nations hangs. US misadventures overseas can result in hundreds of thousands of deaths, and destabilise entire regions. Already, the US-Iran conflict has taken an enormous toll on the global economy, and has sent energy prices rocketing.
That is what is in Pete Hegseth’s inbox every day when he goes to work, styling himself as the Secretary of War. But it’s not how he seems to be filling his days. Instead, Hegseth found time on Wednesday to announce that he would introduce mandatory screening for all US troops over the age of 30 – including women – for testosterone deficiency.
Apparently, it is vitally important that US soldiers are sufficiently manly, though for the moment getting hormone treatments if the test results show low testosterone will be optional. Just as Maga is campaigning against gender-affirming care for trans people across the USA, Hegseth is offering a form of it to every soldier in the US military.
Hegseth seems to be working on a confused and outdated idea of how testosterone works. Except for a very small percentage of men who have an actual testosterone deficiency, increasing T-levels has little effect on muscle, masculine traits, or aggression – unless it is overdosed to dangerous levels.
Endocrinologists warn that taking testosterone supplements when you don’t need them risks leaving someone permanently unable to produce testosterone naturally – ironically emasculating themselves in a bid to become manlier. Hegseth may not have grasped the actual science behind what he is trying to do here.
This intervention on testosterone is just one of a barrage of apparently superficial new regulations introduced by Hegseth, who regularly stages photo opportunities showing himself working out at the gym.
Before his appointment by Trump, Hegseth was previously a weekend host for Fox News whose main claim to fame was that he had once smacked himself in the nuts with a skateboard, live on national television. To this day, he still seems to have a TV presenter’s eye for surface details and physical appearances.
One of Hegseth’s flagship initiatives is requiring all US soldiers to shave, invalidating a longstanding practice of allowing medical waivers lasting between 90 days and five years for troops who had a good reason not to shave.
Now, the limit of each waiver is 90 days, and the Army warned last July that “soldiers who cannot comply with grooming standards within a reasonable time may be administratively separated” – that is, discharged from service – while the Navy has announced a limit of one year before separation. There is more to this policy change than might first meets the eye, though.
Around one in four enlisted soldiers in the US military are Black, and more than half of Black troops have a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae – in which regularly shaved hair grows back inwards, causing inflammation, infection and even permanent scarring.
By making shaving mandatory for these Black men, Hegseth forces them to choose between permanent pain and serious health risks, or being forced out of the military in which they’d volunteered to serve and dedicated their lives to.
Hegseth’s aesthetic preferences become even more obvious when it comes to the most senior ranks of the military. According to the New York Times, as Secretary of Defense Hegseth has reportedly taken unprecedented steps to intervene in the promotions of senior officers, blocking the appointments of almost every woman or non-white man due to advance in rank – contributing to serious shortages in senior officers in the Navy.
The newspaper reports Hegseth has “fired or sidelined” more than two dozen generals or admirals across the military, and blocked the promotions of at least 40 more senior officers. More than half of those, it says, were women or Black. In response, the Pentagon said the New York Times had “a toxic obsession with race and identity”.
Hegseth wants the military officers to be muscular, clean-shaven and smooth white men – a US military made up entirely of living Ken dolls. If a Democratic Defense Secretary obsessed over such trivialities, Fox News and the Republican influencer-sphere would make endless insinuations over it. For now, at least, they seem happy to cheer Hegseth on.
If America remains stuck in a horribly unpopular war with Iran during an election year, though, the hunt for a scapegoat will be on – and Hegseth has placed himself in prime position. He is a profoundly unserious man in an all-too-serious job, who seems to be handling it by occupying himself with trivialities.
Hegseth has devoted himself to purging the US military of any perception of weakness. He might do well to start by taking a long look in the mirror.
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