Now, last month, our friend, former Fox colleague Pete Hegsath was chosen by President like Donald Trump to be his defense secretary. Now, since President Trump's announcement, Pete has faced all the predictable slew of allegations about.
When Pete Hegsett faced the Senate to become Donald Trump's Defense secretary, he was grilled over almost everything.
We're always completely fiscally.
Responded, and.
His lack of experience.
Mister Higgs that I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job.
He's drinking.
Many of your work colleagues has said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk.
And these past remarks that women shouldn't serve in combat.
Who said in your statement you don't want politics in the dot Everything you've said in these public statements is politics. I don't want women, I don't want moms.
What's wrong with a mom? By the way, once you have babies.
I have never disparaged women serving in the military.
But the hearing also made something else clear.
Hegzeth wasn't just being chosen to run the Pentagon in the ordinary sense. He was being chosen to wage a cultural and ideological battle inside it to bring what he called warrior culture back to an institution he and Trump believed had gone woke.
I'm not a perfect person, but redemption is real and God forged me in ways that I know I'm prepared for.
I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM today. Steve Herman, former chief national correspondent for Voice of America, on Pete Hegzeth, the war in Iran, and the role of Christian nationalism in the Trump administration.
It's Friday, March twenty seven, Steve.
When President Trump picked Pete Hagzev for the Defense Secretary.
He chose someone who would not only shake.
Up the Pentagon, but Trump used to joke about him being TV ready. He was a Fox News commentator. Later he was a host. Could you tell us a bit about his earlier years, his reputation at university and then when he was a TV personality.
What was it he like to talk about?
Well, Unlike some in the MAGA inner circle, heg Seth has been pretty consistent in his views for a long time. He was publisher of the Tory Conservative student magazine when he was at Princeton university, and he was railing back then about liberal indoctrination. He strongly opposed the diversity initiatives, and he was a member of circle of religious conservative athletes.
They had a.
Nickname, they were called the God Squad, and classmates remember him as deeply committed to this kind of crusade. Again, it's the liberal culture on campus. And then when he got on the Fox News channel, hag Seth built on this reputation as opposing the woke ideology we've.
Got a new sheriff in town, the social justice engineering of Obama, the focus on gender and quotas, and all the things he did in the Pentagon which have nothing to do with fighting and winning wars.
That ara is over, especially within the Department of Defense.
You don't like women in combat, no.
Hag Seth, maybe as a result of his experience in the military in the field, has a kind of chip on his shoulder, and he frequently argued that these DEI initiatives were undermining the lethality of the military.
Return the Pentagon to the warfighters, Pete, get in there and clean out all the social justice, politically correct garbage on top, and get back to lethality war fighting.
Account of meritocracy and readiness.
And guess so, Steve, what was the appeal for Trump of bringing on Hegxeth other than his TV good looks.
Why did he want him to run the Pentagon?
Yeah, that had a lot to do with it. Nicole, This is somebody that Donald Trump, an avid TV watcher, especially of Fox News, had seen on a program called Fox and Friends Weekend, and he viewed heg Seth as somebody he thought would be trustworthy, wouldn't leaked to the press, wouldn't pushback on presidential directives because in the first administration, Donald Trump had a lot of problems with these military generals who really felt that their obedience was to the Constitution,
not any particular individual or president.
Unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refused to call bs and enforced standards or leaders who felt like they were not.
Allowed to enforce standards. Both are unacceptable.
And hag Seth also, I think mirrored trump and rhetoric, and with Trump's political brand, is trying to appeal to the enlisted soldier, the rank and file, rather than the generals and the admirals and the other high ranking officers. And because you know, the common man is engaged in this internal battle here in the country against this entrenched so called deep state. That's the way that they see it.
Steve, as you were saying, religion clearly a very big part of Hegseeth's life now he follows an evangelical church. Could you tell us more about how religion has really informed and influenced his politics now and his view of the world and view of America's placed in it.
Hag Seth essentially views the United States as a Christian republic and a republic that finds itself in a state of spiritual and cultural warfare. I think anyone who studied anything about American history is familiar with this concept of the separation of church and state. But folks like Pete Hegseth don't see it that way or say that that's not what the country should be. He has these tattoos the Jerusalem Cross, a Latin phrase that means God wills it.
Hexath has tattoos associated with the white supremacist and neo Nazi movements, including what's known as a Jerusalem Cross, a symbol used by Christian nationalists.
And these are symbols of the warrior Christian identity where it gets really dangerous is that in this framing, the conflicts of the Middle East are seen not as you some sort of fluid geopolitical activity, but rather part of God's divine plan.
Because as an evangelical, he believes in the second coming of Christ, which would require Jewish people to return to the Holy Land.
That's the belief there.
So is that why israel I, guess, is such a central part of his views and why he's such a huge.
Supporter of them.
Yes.
In the conversations I've had over the decades with the Christian evangelicals who subscribe to this particular aspect of ideology, they need to protect the Jews. The United States must support Israel because if the Arabs wipe out Israel, then Jesus won't be able to come back to Earth, you know. So there's a bit of discomfort, I can tell you among some Jews. Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has sort of embraces because, hey, we'll take our friends where
we can find them. And you know, I don't believe in this, but if they do and it helps Israel, that's great. But other Jews will point out that, hey, these Christians are supporting us, not because they like Jews. In fact, they would love for all Jews eventually to become Christians. But rather this is fulfilling a biblical prophecy from the New Testament.
Coming up, well, pete haigsith, fall on his sword.
From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this war fighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit.
Steve pete Haig sith, he's obsessed with strength and power. He changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of or he's been releasing these sort of strange video promos about drug card tells the Iran war to what extent do you think he's there for Trump to look tough, overhaul the military and just deliver the president's message.
Is that his role? Or does Trump really even listen to him?
One thing I can tell you about Donald Trump and advice is a lot of the time it's just the last person that Trump has spoken to who wins out. He has obviously shown that he likes to be at the lectern lecturing, whether they're generals or reporters.
It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country in the world.
It's a bad look. It is bad and it's not who we are.
He's made some strange and insulting statements belittling people. But what I think you see among Trump cabinet members in the second term, and we can point out the former Homeland Security Secretary Christy Gnome as an example that you engage in behavior that emulates the boss. But I really think there is a limit, and if the performance eventually reflects poorly on the administration, then the strategy can backfire.
And if this war ends up badly for the Pentagon in US forces, it seems almost undoubtedly that Pete Hegseth will have to fall on the sword because Donald Trump is not going to blame Donald Trump.
We know Haig Seth. He is the public face of all of this war and he has been talking about it in really religious terms as part of God's divine plan.
May Almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight, and again to the American people, please pray for them every day on bendedde with your family, in your schools, in your churches in the name of Jesus Christ.
Some of the commanders are also starting to use that similar language. What do we know about how religion is really being used to frame this war and is it changing the nature of the debate in the US?
We did not mix in decades past Christianity and defense policy, but I think we're very clearly at that point these days. Is it changing how the war is being discussed in America? I don't really think so, because the American people, Congress, are the US allies aren't getting really any sufficient explanation about why this war was started, how it's going to be fought, what is the goal, what is the post war plan that there is going to be. That's the big problem.
You know.
You also have the President referring to the potential of further attacks as possibly being launched, not because there's a strategic reason, but because it's fun.
The line I said, why didn't we just capture the ship? We're going to use it?
Why did we sink them?
They said, it's more fun to sink them.
They like sinking and.
The Pentagon in the White House are producing these video game memes since the company for account, we've seen both Iran and the US embrace and U style of wool propaganda, notably using memes AI trothing.
We're going to annihilate their navy, We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world.
There seems to be a mix of a really shocking level of unseeriousness. You know, a lot of civilians are dying in Iran, US military forces are dying, and I think there's a significant percentage of the American public that's finding this offensive objectionable, and we're starting to see a
backlash against that. There's the politician in Texas who's running for the US Senate, a Democrat that seems to have a chance in a very red state, James tallerco who is a conservative Christian, but he is bluntly saying that what is happening now, these are not Christian values, whether it relates to immigration or the conduct of this war.
They have co opted the Son of God. They've turned this humble rabbi into a gun toting, gay bashing, science denying, money loving, fear mongering fascist, and it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it. And denounce it.
And Steve, what do you think hag Zeth really says to us about the future or the direction of US politics under Trump?
What is it he symbolizes?
Well, I think what he symbolizes is that people are put into these positions as puppets, that they must be loyal to the president first and foremost. That is what is important. And we're hearing terms being thrown out by Trump by heg Seth that broadcasters who don't get in line and report the war the way that the president once it reported that those broadcasters could lose their license. And the word treason is being bandied about as well.
So this is getting extremely serious. It's getting to be beyond intimidation. And you know, this is not what American media is about, because we have the First Amendment of the Constitution in this country, which guarantees freedom of the press. Look, if you want to put in sick of and goofballs and billionaires as the Secretary of the Interior or the head of the Environmental Protection Agency or something like that,
there's a limited amount of damage they can do. But when you're talking about you know, the head of Homeland Security or the Director of National Intelligence, or the Defense Secretary, the US Attorney General. I think even a lot of people in Magaworld and supporters of the president would agree that he probably was not the right man, because it's going to be a man for the right job at the right time.
Steve, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for joining us.
My pleasure, Nicol.
Also in the news, Iranian tourists will be banned from entering Australia for the next six months over concerns that once here they may not be able to go home.
Humanitarian advocates have criticize the move, which will effect around six eight hundred Iranians with valid tourist visas, but Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says triggering the tough new immigration laws is in the national interest and that many visitor visas issued before the Iran war may not have been issued if they were applied for Now and eight more footballers have joined a multimillion dollar concussion class.
Action against the AFL.
More than one hundred former players now claim to have been left brain damage by the game. Ten more clubs have now been listed as defendants alongside Geelong.
And the AFL.
May thirty one next year has been put forward as a possible trial date. I'm Nicole Johnston. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.