Hegxit?

“Typical Trump. All bluster. Very little substance.”

Late Tuesday night, the Wall Street Journal and other sources reported that president-elect Trump has begun floating alternatives to his first pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The first name to emerge as a replacement was his former presidential primary opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Let’s be clear-eyed about what likely made Trump think twice about dropping his Fox & Friends weekend bro. Obviously, Trump gave no shits about Hegseth being tragi-comically unfit for the lofty position, certainly not enough to actually vet him. Moreover, the president-elect appeared unfazed by the increasingly disturbing accusations of sexual assault (in fairness, such metrics would disqualify not just Gaetz and Hegseth, but also RFK Jr., Linda McMahon, and probably a healthy handful of his other nominees—to say nothing about the good hard look in the mirror it would require). Trump shrugs away (or privately endorses) Hegseth’s Christofascist tattoos, alarming Islamaphobic writing, and his public position that women shouldn’t serve in combat. Even the devastating leak of Penelope Hegseth’s 2018 email to her son, during his second acrimonious divorce, failed to move Trump from his conviction that he had found his guy. In it, she stated:

“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

Oof.

But something caused the tides to shift down in Mar-a-Lago, likely spurred in large part by a whistleblower piece in The New Yorker, detailing concerns about (among other disqualifiers) Hegseth boozing heavily at Fox and jobs he held before. Colleagues described him as being “repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity — to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events”). The piece is only the latest among many to create a stir among senators and their concerned constituents. Gotta say, having a blackout drunk in the nuclear chain of command does seem a bit risky.

Clearly, Trump wants to hold onto his central casting made-for-TV cabinet…but it seems the prospect of having a DUI hire for Secretary of Defense would be another inconvenient distraction. Follow-up reporting confirmed that at least six Senate Republicans are not committed to supporting Hegseth’s bid to lead the Pentagon. Given Republicans’ slim Senate majority in the next Congress, Hegseth can afford to lose only three GOP votes, assuming all Democrats vote against him.

Obviously, all of this bodes poorly for Hegseth. And one would think that this uncovered footage, courtesy of CNN, would only make matters worse. Here’s Hegseth in 2016, declaring what he actually thinks of the guy who nominated him (and who told him: “I got your back. It’s a fight. They’re coming after you.” Good luck with that, Pete.)

“Typical Trump. All bluster. Very little substance.”

OK. On the one hand, it’s not great to be caught on camera denigrating a man whose chief prerequisite is unwavering loyalty. But at this point, that covers most of the Republican Party. Is there anybody in the GOP who hasn’t told the truth about Trump, only to make an abrupt about-face once they realized their political future depends on a humiliating act of unconditional fealty and self-rescission?

In that light, it’s arguably better that Hegseth once derided him, given the gross delight Trump takes in watching former critic’s moral backbones dissolve into jello-like husks as they hustle down to his resort and awkwardly pretend to enjoy hearing “YMCA” by his side. Once they flip, as a tragic number have, it reveals the extent to which they are willing to sell out, look the other way, and make garishly plain their absence of any personal agency.

The fact that these hypocrites have all announced their original perspective on camera proves that even when they know better, even when they are fully aware of who he is and the danger he poses to the country, he still holds the power to turn his opponents into servile sycophants. Trump seeks fulfillment by controlling others and being regarded as omnipotent. He can only feel like a big boy when he’s making others feel small. So wielding power and being groveled over by those who were once willing to offer the hard truth about him…must be nothing less than intoxicating.

So his once-opponent, Ron DeSantis, definitely won’t be disqualified for saying things like this:

Similarly, it doesn’t matter that his Vice President once called him “America’s Hitler;” that Tulsi Gabbard claimed he was “Saudi Arabia’s bitch;” that RFK Jr. recognized him as a “sociopath;” or that Elise Stefanik acknowledged that he’s a “whack job.”

As a window into the strenuous calculus involved in his picks, Trump told sources close to him that he likes the idea of giving the job to a man he once nicknamed Ron Sanctimonious, saying it would be a “big story” if he brought back DeSantis after defeating him. What a time we’re living in: the Secretary of Defense potentially being tapped because Trump is tickled by the prospect of a “big story.”

The point is that competence, qualifications, and prior displays of respect are not salient factors in Trump’s decision-making about who gets to ride in his clown car. Instead, he has chosen to surround himself with spineless flip-floppers who are certain to bend to his will. He’s not choosing people for their integrity—he’s choosing those who have demonstrated the lack of it. As a bonus, he gets to humiliate converted sycophants and make former opponents prostrate themselves for fun along the way.

It remains to be seen how long until Hegseth gets dumped, but it’s not looking good. That his nomination may ultimately be torpedoed by Iowa republican Senator Joni Ernst, a veteran and sexual assault survivor, is a possibility that might resonate for some. However, she didn’t hesitate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, so…maybe best not to put our faith in her moral fortitude or the courage of her convictions.

What we know for sure is that the next person to oversee the Pentagon, its 800+ billion dollar budget, and our 1.3 million active-duty troops will not prioritize allegiance to the country of its people. To the peril of our nation and world, that person will serve one man, Donald Trump, and nothing else.