A worrisome fact (the most worrisome) is that Hegseth is actually the man. There's no shortage of people with the access and proximity to wield guidance, influence, and pressure on him but ultimately, Secretary of Defense wields both administrative and operational control over the DoD and all of its constituent service branches. There is nobody who can tell him a fucking thing outside of Trump, because SecDef answers to the POTUS alone. In tangible terms, Pete Hegseth is arguably the second most politically powerful man in the entire country, lol. The reason people don't often contemplate that is simply because the US military doesn't have much impact on the day-to-day domestic issues of the nation, whether economic or social, legislative or judicial.
abcnews.go.com
