You know those memes that show someone looking at a complicated math problem with a confused look on their face? I imagine that's what I looked like while reading the Associated Press article on, of all things, Pete Hegseth's tattoos today. At least, that's what I think it was supposed to be about. It was a tad convoluted and full of conjecture.
Let's start with the title of the article, which is "Trump Pentagon pick had been flagged by fellow service member as possible ‘Insider Threat’." Woo! Sounds scary, right? Are we about to put some kind of domestic terrorist in charge of the Department of Defense? We better keep reading.
The first line states: "Pete Hegseth, the Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Defense, was flagged as a possible 'Insider Threat' by a fellow service member due to a tattoo on his bicep that’s associated with white supremacist groups."
Wait, what? A tattoo? That's the threat? Well, they said it's associated with white supremacist groups, so maybe it really is bad. Perhaps it's a swastika or a burning cross. Damn, Pete, I had high hopes for you. But before telling me about the tattoo and doing any actual reporting, the AP inserts a random something about January 6. It also mentions that Hegseth has said in the past that he wasn't allowed to work at Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration due to a cross tattoo on his chest, but I am smart enough to presume that's not the tattoo we're talking about here.
Finally, we get to the damning evidence. "This week, however, a fellow Guard member...shared with The Associated Press an email he sent to the unit’s leadership flagging a different tattoo reading 'Deus Vult' that’s been used by white supremacists, concerned it was an indication of an 'Insider Threat'.” It then goes on to share the email from this random dude, which is from January 2021, and is filled with what I can only describe as mental gymnastics.
Apparently, this guy who served with Hegseth wrote an email to leadership stating that Hegseth had a tattoo on his arm that could be, could not be a sign that he's a white supremacist. The email goes on to explain at length the potential white supremacy meaning behind the tattoo, why extremist groups use it, how it goes against military rules regarding service members having "extremist" tattoos, and how Hegseth is probably an "Insider Threat." Did you catch all of that? That's quite the leap he made there.
Rather than simply report the facts about what would be a non-story to anyone with any common sense, the AP then takes it upon itself to dig up anything slightly controversial (to them) that Hegseth has ever said or done and pile it all on top of this four-year-old email full of speculation. There are mentions of January 6, everyone's favorite liberal dog whistle, and more white supremacy, but what the article doesn't really touch on is that both of the tattoos in question are largely thought of as Christian symbols and have been for centuries.
The Latin phrase "Deus vult" means "God wills it," and it was a rallying cry used by Catholics during the Crusades. The Jerusalem Cross, which is tattooed on Hegseth's chest, also dates back to the Crusades and was a symbol of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Have some extremist groups used these symbols in more recent years? Yes. Does that mean Hegseth is an extremist? No. See, AP? That's really all you needed to say if you were here to just report the facts.
It's kind of like seeing someone with a rainbow tattoo and assuming they're gay rather than thinking that maybe the person is a Christian and it symbolizes God's promise as described in the story of Noah's Ark, or that maybe they just like rainbows. Oh wait, that's kind of what the left does, isn't it — assigns everyone to a group based on their own made up criteria? How'd that work out on Election Day, by the way? But I digress...
Anyway, Vice President-elect JD Vance came to Hegseth's defense on X, calling the article "anti-Christian bigotry."
Hegseth chimed in too:
Look, I'm not here to be a Hegseth apologist. I honestly don't know that much about him aside from the fact that he has a pretty impressive background and all my female friends find him dreamy. I'm not someone who thinks Trump can do no wrong, and I'm just here to learn about these people he's nominating for his cabinet. Some of them I like, some of them I know nothing about, and some of them have me wondering if he really is doing some "God-tier-level trolling," as Senator John Fetterman suggested.
But the only thing I learned from this AP article is that the liberal media doesn't like him, which, quite frankly, moves him up a notch in my book. Oh, and that it takes three whole reporters to write one biased article that leaves out half the facts. No wonder an ad popped up asking me to make a donation while I was trying to make sense of the dumb article.
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