The left is engaged in an all-out attack on the policies of the Trump presidency. However, most of those attacks are not aimed at policies, per se; they are aimed at specific people and agencies. For instance, the nation remains in favor of getting rid of illegals, but, thanks to lies perpetrated by the left and their stenographers in the media, they are becoming dissatisfied with how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are operating. Kristi Noem and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are the targets of personal attacks. JD Vance has had his faith, his wife, and his marriage attacked. In fact, it seems that the more successful an administration official is, the more unhinged and deranged the attacks. Few members of President Trump's cabinet have had a greater impact, and undergone more scurrilous attacks, than Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
When Hegseth was nominated to his current position, the U.S. military was swirling in the toilet bowl. The services were controlled by those who, in the words of the author of Genesis, had sold their birthright for a "mess of pottage." They had traded away warfighting skills, military honor and tradition, and loyal service to the naiton in favor of mindlessly serving whatever fad was hitting academia (by the way, I think staunching this idiocy will be a great result of the Pentagon's recent policy on which schools are open to officers seeking advanced degrees; see 'We Train Warriors, Not Wokesters' – Hegseth Tells Prestigious University to Take a Hike).
Hegseth's changes began early with his famous "all hands" meeting that required attendance by all serving Flag or General Officers; see Pete Hegseth Makes a Much-Needed 'My Way or the Highway' Offer to Assembled Generals and Admirals. Part of that speech was a call to physical fitness. Under the previous administration, the standards were corrupted to ensure that every variant of sexual perversion would be able to pass even the most demanding schools in the military.
Those changes, particularly as they regard his campaign against "wokeness" in the military, have made him particularly hated by the left. The fact that he obviously has a strong team in the Pentagon and an equally strong bond with the men and women in the Armed Forces makes him doubly hated.
One of Hegseth's trademarks is physical fitness. Not only is he in great shape himself, but when he visits units, he makes a point of participating in physical fitness training sessions with the troops.
Friday, Hegseth was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. While there, he reconnected with the unit he served with in Afghanistan. While an officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, he served as an infantry platoon leader in 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, aka The Rakkasans, the Japanese words for "falling umbrellas" or parachutes. There, he earned a reputation as a tough, capable, and canny combat leader.
Predictably, Hegseth did PT with the Rakkasans and, just as predictably, he was excoriated for it. Most of the abuse was on social media by people who'd never done anything more strenuous than getting off the sofa; for instance, Pentagon Pete Hegseth Hits Up Old Platoon With U.S. on Brink of War With Iran. The insinuation that the Secretary of War should be bunkered down is ludicrous. Any operation planned in Iran is under the purview of U.S. Central Command. If the Secretary of War is tied up in operational planning, he needs to fire some people. Moreover, you can't allow the movements of a single individual to serve as a warning to our enemies when operations are imminent.
What particularly got their goat was Hegseth bench-pressing. What really got them was his pressing 315 pounds.
It was nearly a metaphor for Hegseth's career. He faltered. He almost failed to make it. But when it counted, he succeeded.
Suddenly, X was inundated with people who claimed that 315 pounds was nothing. One moron claimed that three-fourths of the guys in his high school class could do it. And another school claimed it was all fake. Reality Check: Dude, do you see those troops standing there? Do you think a single one of them would let Hegseth get by with claiming he'd pressed 315 pounds if he'd really pressed 314? If you think an E-4 is intimidated by rank and won't call out anyone, including generals, when they think they can get away with it, you obviously know nothing about any branch of the U.S. military. There were the imbeciles who pointed out that if the six plates on the bar weighed 45 pounds each, then he "only" pressed 270 pounds, loudly announcing to the world they were utter strangers to moving iron because the bar itself weighs 45 pounds.
The Daily Beast outdid itself in being the most shameful outlet. Hegseth had filmed himself lifting before the Fort Campbell event with his teenage son spotting for him.
The headline of their story is Pentagon Pete Berates Son Gunner for Nearly Ruining Publicity Stunt.
As he lifts the barbell off the rack, Hegseth continues to tell his son not to touch it, affirming, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it.”
The defense secretary dropped the bar down, bouncing it off his chest and pushing it back up toward the rack as his butt indeed lifts to support his efforts. As he nears the height to rest the bar back on the rack, he snaps at Gunner as he reaches to help.
“Don’t touch it!” he exclaims, before lifting it up the rest of the way to rack the bar to clear one rep. “Yeah! There we go, haaa!”
If you've ever spotted for someone or had someone spot weights for you, you recognize the pattern. It is important that the lifter be in charge and let the spotter know when he's needed and when he's not. Good grief, if that was "berating," I have no idea what they would've written if they'd watched me and my 17-year-old building a deck.
The bottom line is that Hegseth is building a bond with the rank and file unlike any Secretary of War/Defense in our history. He's showing them that he can walk the walk he's imposing on them. He's laying down a marker for their bosses, because if SecWar presses 315, you can bet there will be pressure on lots of colonels and generals to be seen lifting weights at the gym. The services are recovering the professionalism destroyed by Lloyd Austin, and the cultural rot is being excised. The competence of the military makes Hegseth immune from attacks in that quarter, so the left has to find something else. And this is the crap they come up with: lying and mocking Hegseth for lifting weights with the troops, when most of the critics would be hard-pressed to do a single rep of push-away-from-the-table, much less lift the plates. They do it because it is all they have left.