Why the MAGA world won't turn its back on Hegseth
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a lunch with President Trump and Jonas Gahr Store, Norway's prime minister, on April 24. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
MAGAworld's repeated races to defend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth help illuminate what it takes for the president's most hardcore supporters to truly have your back.
The big picture: Agreeing with President Trump on policy isn't enough to earn the MAGA movement's full-fledged backing. For that, it helps to have been around since the beginning — and having the right enemies is just as important as having the right friends.
MAGA is ready to fight "when we know who the people are, they've been in the trenches with us before, they're fighters. We know the media is just coming after them," said Steve Bannon, the popular podcaster and MAGA leader.
- The base may not be as ready to jump to someone's defense if it doesn't know "how solid they are in backing the president's program and how far they're prepared to commit to it and fight for it and suffer for it," he said.
Zoom out: Already, Hegseth has survived multiple scandals.
- He faced a grueling Senate confirmation process marred by allegations of sexual assault and binge drinking. Trump's media allies helped push Hegseth over the finish line by threatening to mount primary challenges against any Republicans who voted against him.
- After winning confirmation, he was criticized for sharing Yemen attack plans in a Signal group chat organized by Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, that accidentally included a journalist.
- He was later reported to have sent similar plans to a Signal chat he established that included his wife, among other allies.
- Hegseth's Pentagon has also been beset by infighting, leading to a furious leaking investigation and a slate of firings. Even as recently as Monday, former employees were lobbing bombs at Hegseth.
Zoom in: Throughout it all, support from MAGA hasn't wavered, and Trump told The Atlantic that he had a "positive talk" with his Defense secretary. But the same can't be said of others.
- Waltz drew more ire over Signalgate 1.0 for having the number of The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg.
- MAGA media has also been quick to throw barbs at Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.), who are largely supportive of Trump but historically have more interventionist tendencies or fall out of line on one particular government nominee.
What they're saying: Hegseth's survival shows that loyalty to MAGA and Trump – and fights with their enemies – will be repaid in times of need. But Trump's battle-hardened base has a good nose for those who haven't always been by its side.
- "We see the same old D.C. playbook being used against you. We don't believe it. We think it's completely fake, and we know it's just to take you out on transparently pretextual grounds. So now, you have the backing of the president's entire movement, because he wants you, and also you have the extra validation of the people that we hate attacking you," the Conservative Partnership Institute's Rachel Bovard said.
- "It goes to skin in the game," she added of more recent MAGA converts. "Because I think, there's this part of MAGA that's like, 'Look, we've been out here beating these drums, and a lot of us have taken punches in the face, arrows to the back, the mainstream media shames us,' that kind of thing.
- "And if you weren't part of that, and you were just staying between the velvet rope lines, and now all of a sudden, you are going to say the right things to ascend to the right position, you have to prove yourself a little bit."
