When considering the reasons why Donald Trump picked a Fox News blowhard to run the near-trillion-dollar U.S. military, it's important to remember that our TV-addicted president-elect favors a strong jawline over concerns like skills or experience. Pete Hegseth may be "the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history," as the founder of Independent Veterans of America said on Twitter. He may not "have any background whatsoever" in defense policy, as Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told Politico. But Hegseth, with his heavily gelled hair and impressive bone structure, looks a lot like a movie star of Trump's 1950s childhood. CNN reporter Alayna Tree confirmed that those cheekbones were a major factor in this pick: “Trump also thinks he has the look,” one source told her.

Trump's contempt for the actual work of the military is well documented. One does not need to be a big fan of war to find it disgusting that Trump calls people "suckers and losers" for the hard, often thankless work of serving in the military. It's no surprise that he'd rather give a key Cabinet seat to someone he likes to look at, rather than someone who can serve the interests of military personnel. It also appears that Hegseth is one of a long list of flat-out trolling nominations for Trump's second term, which also includes Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida as attorney general or Fox News substitute host (and onetime Hawaii congresswoman) Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. The goal here seems to be finding people who are uniquely unfit for these jobs, both to rile up liberals and to flush out any Republicans with remaining loyalties to the concept of responsible governance.

But while being handsome and totally unqualified........

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