Pete Hegseth's Offensive Address

The secretary of defense uses a D-Day speech to attack allies and immigrants

Almost every day, Pete Hegseth offers fresh proof of why he should never have been appointed secretary of defense (or, as he prefers to call it, secretary of war). The latest example came on what should have been a solemn and sacred occasion: the commemoration of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

This was one of the turning points of World War II. The courage and sacrifice of the American, British and Canadian troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy made possible the liberation of Europe. It was a signal victory for democracy and a massive defeat for Nazi tyranny.

Much of Hegseth’s speech at the American cemetery in Normandy was appropriate to the occasion. “We remember the losses,” he said. “We celebrate the victories. We rededicate ourselves to the fight for liberty, security, and peace.” Sounds good. But Hegseth felt compelled to inject noxious MAGA ideology into what should have been a feel-good moment celebrating the trans-Atlantic alliance.

First, he took a veiled shot at our NATO allies. He said:

“The men buried here fought in a war-fighting alliance where every partner brought a full measure of industry, courage and sacrifice. Not empty slogans, not lavish summits, not communiqués. Real allies doing real things, taking real losses, for a shared loss worth fighting and dying for. Each nation pulled its weight. Each nation bled… In the years since these beaches, much of the West, in some places, in some quarters, and in some capitals, grew comfortable. We forgot that freedom is not free. We forgot that peace is not wished into being. It is bought with purpose, with honor, and with strength.”

This will be seen in Europe—and rightly so—as another in a long line of attacks by the Trump administration on the most successful alliance in history. The obvious message is that today’s European allies are freeloaders who are not willing to shed their blood for freedom, as Americans are doing. Hegseth is echoing what his boss, Donald Trump, said in January about NATO soldiers: “We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the frontlines.”

His comments sparked outrage in Europe, and rightly so, given that more than 1,100 European soldiers lost their lives in the war in Afghanistan, and they were fighting because America was attacked on 9/11. Yet now Trump and his minions routinely trash the Europeans and denigrate their sacrifice, while praising Putin, Xi, and other enemies of freedom. More than that, Trump and Hegseth are reducing the U.S. troop presence in Europe, blocking additional aid to Ukraine, and cozying up to Putin, thereby placing our allies in greater danger.

But what made Hegseth’s comments truly disgusting is what he said after he implicitly attacked NATO. He said:

“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not.”

This is xenophobic, far-right nonsense that unfortunately has become the conventional wisdom of the Trump administration. Hegseth was somehow equating the Nazis with impoverished immigrants from the Global South who are seeking a better life in Europe. He was implicitly echoing white supremacists who (as in the 1973 French novel The Camp of the Saints) try to suggest that non-white immigrants are invaders who pose a mortal threat to European civilization.

This is gross and offensive at any time, and doubly so when he is speaking about the heroes who defeated the Nazis and liberated the death camps. He is trying to rhetorically enlist the enemies of fascism in the 1940s on the side of fascism today. The real threat to Europe comes not from immigrants but from far-right parties that, with the Trump administration’s support, seek to undermine European democracy and cozy up to a revanchist Russia.

If you want to know what Hegseth should and could have said, go back to Ronald Reagan’s memorable address at Normandy on June 6, 1984 (written by Peggy Noonan, now a Wall Street Journal columnist). After paying tribute to the Rangers who stormed the cliffs where he stood—”the boys of Pointe du Hoc”—Reagan paid tribute to the trans-Atlantic alliance forged in World War II:

“The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.”

That’s how you talk about allies. That’s how you stand up for the values that the heroes of D-Day fought for. Hegseth, as usual, is clueless and offensive. Like the president he works for, he is doing great damage to the trans-Atlantic alliance and the world’s perceptions of the United States and thereby undermining U.S. security.