Pete Hegseth may be the most hated man in Washington. According to a recent polling analysis by CNN’s Harry Enten, the defense secretary’s approval ratings have fallen below even the basement-level numbers of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. So when Hegseth took a trip to speak at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 17 — a move traditionally seen as the soft launch of a presidential campaign — the response among much of the political chattering class was peals of laughter. Surely even Republicans wouldn’t sink so low as to nominate a thrice-married repeat adulterer who claims to be a Christian while engaging in very un-Christlike bullying, and whose only job real experience is being on TV a lot? Oh, wait.
The grim reality is that of the Republican names being floated for a 2028 presidential run, Hegseth is the man most closely aligned with white evangelicals, who still make up the majority of GOP primary voters. Like most of this voting bloc, Hegseth’s political and religious views are thoroughly entwined — an alarming fact, considering his church is extremist even by Christian right terms. His pastor, who has given a sermon at the Pentagon, opposes women’s suffrage and has romanticized slavery as the superior state of race relations.
