“America First, ALWAYS” said the banner behind them; and “America First WORKS” proclaimed the podium. That was the stage set for MAGA to campaign against Rep. Thomas Massie and for his Trump-backed primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, today, ahead of the Republican primary. And of course, Pete Hegseth was there.
Defense secretaries almost never openly campaign in partisan House primaries — especially against sitting members of their own party — because Pentagon leadership traditionally tries to maintain at least some appearance of political neutrality. But Hegseth is nothing if not abnormal.
Why is Massie such a threat to the Trump-friendly GOP? Well, he’s committed a number of recent sins: he’s criticized the Iran war; he’s been vocal about the need to fully release the Epstein files; he voted against the infamous Trump tariffs. Massie is more of a libertarian chaos agent than a “fall into line behind the nearest rich guy” type — or, as the president of the United States put it so eloquently, he’s a “totally ineffective LOSER”. And when you stand against warmongering, sex crimes and extra taxes, what do you even really stand for any more?
Representing the warmongering contingent at Monday’s event was Hegseth. No fight is too small for this man; yes, the U.S. is at war and Iran and literally threatened grim “surprises” earlier today, but KENTUCKY’s Tuesday primary.
He’s “the second-busiest man in the world,” Gallrein said as he introduced a sitting member of the administration to campaign for him during wartime, so “thank-you for coming, Pete!” Van Halen started booming out the speakers. People held their phones up to take bad pictures. And then… well, Pete began to speak.
“I have to say upfront, for the lawyers, that I’m here in my personal capacity,” he began, with a little smirk, “as a private citizen, a fellow American, and a fellow combat veteran, here to support Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.”
No Hatch Act violation – the law that prohibits political activities for government workers – to see here, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, now everybody move on.
Ed is a man who “surrounded himself with warriors” and “led from the front,” Hegseth continued. A smattering of other such cliches about the military followed. He went through Gallrein’s military record: he’d been given the “Navy Cross of unit citations,” the defense secretary added. And “unlike politicians in Washington” (not Pete, though! Not private citizen and fellow American Pete!), “you don’t get those for podcasting or pontificating.” You don’t get them for “explaining why everybody else is wrong,” either, he added, which was a weird point that seemed to go nowhere.
Never mind, because “America is starving for those types of leaders.” We have plenty of “talkers in D.C.” and “not enough war fighters,” Hegseth lamented. Congress, it turns out, is filled with deal-making bureaucrats and diplomats, not with people who thirst for blood. How we got into this mess is surely anybody’s guess!
Ed is not a “social media celebrity” or “someone who discovered patriotism because a pollster told him it was popular.” He hasn’t “mastered the language of Washington social circles,” Hegseth added. For a politician who works in Washington to be out campaigning for another man desperate to become a politician working in Washington, Hegseth really seems to hate politicians working in D.C.
Under Joe Biden, everyone “cowered to the woke mob,” Hegseth then said. His voice sped up as he listed off all the things that apparently destroyed America before Trump 2.0: “diversity quotas, climate seminars, pronouns, dudes in dresses.” Just try and imagine it: people elected to lead, talking about equality. Sharing research on the environment. Using grammar.
Probably the peak of this speech was the claim “We have ended the war on warriors,” which if nothing else absolutely did prove that grammar certainly isn’t a big concern for the American government any longer.
Just hours before, a New York Times poll had shown Trump’s approval rating plunging the lowest it’s ever been, mainly because of concerns about the war (“America First WORKS,” except for Americans, it seems) but it’s not like the Secretary of War can do anything about that, now, can he?! And after all the stress of developments like that, has not earned a little jaunt to Kentucky?
Whether Hegseth’s appearance actually does cross ethical or legal lines for executive branch officials, as outlined in the Hatch Act, remains unclear. Legal experts seem divided. It’s certainly not exactly kosher to mix official trips with campaigning for the president’s preferred candidate. But political norms aren’t exactly something MAGA cares a huge amount about.
Yet, it may not even matter. This couldn’t be more of a gift to Massie, who has suddenly been made to look like A Very Big Deal to everyone.
“You can tell that I’m ahead in the polls and they’re desperate. That’s why they’re sending the Secretary of War to my district,” he said Sunday on ABC News.
“The president’s been losing sleep and tweeting about this,” he added.
Hegseth’s appearance was, in the end, less a campaign stop than a reminder that the boundaries between government, party and performance are now mostly decorative — and subject, like everything else, to revision. Massie, meanwhile, is trying to paint himself as the plain-speaking, outcast defender of the true conservative right. With all this attention from the president himself, it’s possible Massie could win out in the game first invented by Donald J. Trump.
