Shortly after he became Trump’s Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth warned that the American military risked a late Soviet-style decline. Speaking before a group of defense executives in November 2025, he teased comparisons with the USSR and even the Chinese Communist Party as he described an “adversary” that poses a serious threat to the United States of America. “The adversary I’m talking about is much closer to home,” he said. “It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy — not the people, but the process.”
This March, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, pulled into port at Souda Bay, Greece, scheduled for more than a week of repairs. More than 200 of its sailors were receiving treatment for smoke inhalation, a result of a laundry room fire that spread through the ventilation system into the carrier’s sleeping quarters.
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