{"id":955,"date":"2026-08-31T21:08:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=955"},"modified":"2026-08-31T21:08:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:08:43","slug":"while-losing-a-real-war-pete-hegseth-is-building-a-troll-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=955","title":{"rendered":"While Losing a Real War, Pete Hegseth Is Building a Troll Army"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The uneasy stalemate between Iran and the United States flared into violence on Sunday after America launched an attack on Iranian rocket launchers. Iran retaliated by launching missiles against Jordan, a US ally. The new round of fighting proves that the Trump administration remains committed to the fantasy that that more violence will force the Iranian government to surrender. In reality, although both sides in the conflict have endured losses, the ability of the US to impose its will with force has steadily diminished. On August 22, retired general Barry R. McCaffrey offered the sober assessment that \u201cthe US Armed Forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases. Iran now poised to control access the Gulf States. US will have to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, southern Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The USS \u201cLincoln\u201d Is Part of a Long History of Naval Mistreatment<\/a><\/p>\n

McCaffrey is an eminently establishment figure, but his pessimistic conclusion aligns with the judgement of thinkers who are more typically seen as critics of the foreign-policy consensus. John Mearsheimer, for example, an international-relations professor at the University of Chicago, describes the Iran War as a humiliating defeat.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, acknowledging defeat doesn\u2019t come easily to either Donald Trump or the ridiculous martinet he nominated to run the military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Both Trump and Hegseth are cultural warriors first and foremost, interested in winning battles on social issues by purging trans soldiers from the military, blocking the advancement of women and Blacks in the upper ranks, and overturning anything they consider DEI (a broad category that includes even acknowledging that Black soldiers have served with distinction).<\/p>\n

With his focus on culture wars, Hegseth isn\u2019t likely to listen to the criticism of figures like McCaffrey and Mearsheimer. In fact, evidence suggests that he isn\u2019t even willing to listen to his own four-star generals who are offering dire warning that the military is dangerously overextended. As The Washington Post <\/em>reported on Sunday, \u201cSeveral U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland.\u201d Even before the Iran War started, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the White House \u201cthat the U.S. lacked sufficient munitions\u2014and support from allies\u2014to conduct an extended large-scale campaign.\u201d The Trump administration ignored this caution, and the US is now in a worse position, lacking the military bases to resupply navy vessels in the region (which has led to crisis conditions on ships such as the USS Liberty<\/em>) and suffering a shortage of Patriot interceptors.<\/p>\n

The Post <\/em>report noted that \u201ccertain generals and admirals were more expansive and frank than is usual in telling Hegseth they disagreed with orders to keep providing equipment and personnel when the operation\u2019s trajectory remains uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Hegseth is disregarding the advice of his top generals, it\u2019s because the culture war is more important to him than the real war. Hegseth has White House ambitions and is gearing up for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination. Losing a war with Iran would tarnish Hegseth politically, but he has developed a simple solution: using the resources of the Pentagon to create a troll army of social-media influencers who could create an alternate reality where all his actions were brilliant victories.<\/p>\n

On August 27, Will Sommer of The Bulwark<\/em>, an astute observer of the right, reported that one of Hegseth\u2019s most vocal online fans was also covertly a civilian employee of the Pentagon. The person in question was\u00a0Jennica Pounds, who posts under the name DataRepublican. As Sommer noted:<\/p>\n

\n

Hegseth has gone to great lengths to limit and muzzle many members of the traditional Pentagon press corps. But secretly employing a shadowy, rabidly online personality for the apparent purpose of going after your enemies is a remarkable illustration of the kind of steps Hegseth appears willing to take to fight internecine political wars. Here\u2019s the thing, though:<\/p>\n

Read more Confessions of an AI Editor<\/a><\/p>\n

Pounds appears to be just one of several people enlisted in such a task.<\/p>\n

At least three other prominent pro-Trump social media figures who have either worked for Hegseth or almost gotten jobs at the Pentagon have also come to serve as reliable online allies for Hegseth. Funnily enough, they\u2019ve also all rushed to defend Pounds in the face of the criticism that she\u2019s an undercover federal operative.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On Sunday, the Post<\/em> published an extensive article that built on Sommer\u2019s journalism, both confirming it and providing additional details. According to the newspaper, \u201cThe Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Hegseth\u2019s troll soldiers, Thomas Anderson (who posts under the name Cynical Publius), repeatedly attacked anti-war Republican Representative Thomas Massie during a primary race that Massie ended up losing. It\u2019s hard not to avoid the conclusion that taxpayer money allocated to the Pentagon was used by the executive branch to influence a congressional election, a direct attack on the principle of keeping the military out of domestic politics.<\/p>\n

Shamefully, the Post<\/em>\u2019s excellent reporting was attacked by the paper\u2019s hawkish columnist Marc Thiessen, a frequently unhinged apologist for Trump\u2019s imperialism, who responded to the report about senior generals dissenting from Hegseth by fuming, \u201cWhoever leaked this is a traitor and ought to be prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In point of fact, the leaker was committing an act of high patriotism, not treason. In a constitutional republic, the military is not the political instrument of either the president or the defense secretary. Rather, the military must always be nonpartisan. If top generals think the military is being pushed to the limits of its fighting capacity, the public deserves to know.<\/p>\n

Hegseth is remaking the military into the image of MAGA: an army of white cis-male reactionaries who nurse fantasies of their macho prowess and love the catatonic self-satisfaction of living in a social-media echo chamber.<\/p>\n

A perhaps more sympathetic interpretation might be that Hegseth is as much to be pitied as held in contempt. After all, he\u2019s clearly incapable of winning a real war, so has to settle for the illusory victories of his troll army.<\/p>\n

Read more What\u2019s Fueling Loneliness\u2014and Polarization\u2014in America Today?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nWhile Losing a Real War, Pete Hegseth Is Building a Troll Army - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=955\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"While Losing a Real War, Pete Hegseth Is Building a Troll Army - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=955\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-31T21:08:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"While Losing a Real War, Pete Hegseth Is Building a Troll Army\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-31T21:08:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955\"},\"wordCount\":1092,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/062f5770e562a426216bc7c2bfb28ffe.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=955\",\"name\":\"While Losing a Real War, Pete Hegseth Is Building a Troll Army - 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