Why Trump and Hegseth’s swagger leaves Washington’s ‘elite’ seething

When you’ve constructed a cartoon version of the world in your mind, what do you do when reality proves it wrong? 

If you’re the leftist establishment, you certainly don’t rethink your assumptions.

Late Friday, New York Times columnist David French snarkily referred to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as a “walking MAGA caricature” on X.  

Four hours later, Hegseth’s troops were pounding Iran in an intricate series of strikes that left its evil regime reeling.

The response to French — who has not withdrawn his sneer — was unsympathetic. 

My favorite:  “Let’s have a contest . . . you and Pete show up at Fort Bragg, see who the troops respect more.”

Is Hegseth a caricature? 

To French and his ilk, maybe; but to many others, he’s a guy who gets results. 

Presumably a 1945 David French would have considered Gen. George S. Patton a caricature, too.  

But the thing is, like Patton, Hegseth not only talks tough, and acts tough; he is tough. 

The raids on Iranian nuclear plants, the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from within his nation’s largest military base, the destruction of Ayatollah Khamenei and his senior leadership — all were masterstrokes of military planning and execution.

“We didn’t start this war,” Hegseth declared Monday, “but we are finishing it.”

If that’s what a caricature can do, maybe we need more caricatures in Washington.

President Donald Trump, too, is at the top of the left’s caricature list. 

The legacy press and the academic foreign-policy experts continue to portray Trump as a strutting toddler who careens from impulse to impulse in an utterly undisciplined and unthinking fashion.

Not so much.

Trump’s tactics typically have two characteristics: He goes after his opponents’ source of sustenance (usually, but not always, financial), and he accomplishes more than one goal at a time.

The first aim of the Iran operation, of course, is to neutralize a major regional threat.

At the same time, though, Trump has cut the ground out from under what’s left of Hamas and Hezbollah.

He’s also shut off the pipeline of Iranian cash that Tehran has basically admitted was being used to bribe politicians and journalists in Europe, and to support various NGOs that serve anti-American and anti-Israeli ends.

Iran has been a major sponsor of terrorism around the world; that will end.

Iran was a crucial pillar of the BRICS coalition that threatened the US dollar; now that threat has been sharply reduced.

And other BRICS members are struggling, too — China needs oil and Russia is broke and mired in a ruinous war of its own devising.

With Iranians free to say what they think of the mullahs’ regime, the left’s narrative that fundamentalist Islam is some sort of virtuous anti-colonial state will crumble.

So Trump’s behavior shows a pretty coherent strategy.

But leftists at home and abroad continue to see Trump, like Hegseth, as nothing but an immature, strutting, macho caricature.

Their war on “toxic masculinity” means that they see pretty much any sign of effectiveness and self-confidence as strutting, macho immaturity — at least when displayed by straight white males.  

That’s a recipe for national failure. 

Historically, leaders who speak straightforwardly, show self-confidence and lead effectively are, well, good leaders. 

“Leaders” who complain that the world is complicated and they can’t do much about its problems aren’t. 

They gave us “forever wars” instead of victories — not only in conflicts with foreign enemies, but in wars against poverty, homelessness, “climate change” and the like. 

Trump just does things, and they work.

At base, the establishment view of Trump et al. as buffoons and cartoons is a reflection of its own insecurity. 

As commentator William Wolf observed on X, “The fact that a billionaire real estate playboy who liked to slap his name on steaks and wine has proven to be a better diplomat and military strategist than every other politician and foreign policy expert over the last 30 years is such a damning indictment of the DC establishment I honestly don’t know how they recover.”

Easier for them to pretend that Trump is nothing but an impetuous child. 

And if that self-satisfying stance fails to convince Americans, well, at least the “elite” is staying on-brand.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the InstaPundit.com blog.