When Pete Hegseth was made Donald Trump’s secretary of war, there was shock and consternation. Since then he has put highly classified plans to bomb Yemen on a group chat and ordered executions of Venezuelans in the sea, reportedly insisting they “kill everybody”, even when the survivors who were seen clinging to a boat could pose no threat.
The former Fox News talkshow host holds one of the most powerful jobs in the world and has come to it with a clear ideology. He wants to bring his “warrior culture” to the US military. Joseph Gedeon, a breaking news reporter for the Guardian US, tells Nosheen Iqbal: “His whole thing is about what he calls the warrior ethos. His whole message is that America fights with one hand tied behind its back because of lawyers, oversight and cultural distractions.”
Now strikes on Venezuelans in the Caribbean Sea have led to him being accused of war crimes and a damning report into his handling of classified information has come back. Can he survive?
