09/02/2026
If you didn't think Pete Hegseth was vile enough, rest assured: somewhere between attempting pull-ups with the troops and burning through tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and the nation's munitions stockpile on a rudderless war, the Secretary of Defense found time this week to mock a teenage girl and her instructor. On Monday night, Hegseth reposted a photo from Canada's century-old national cadet program -- a smiling teenager receiving a medal at the end of her summer training -- and sneered, in the entire text of his caption, "(this is real)."
On the same day his own Army Secretary resigned in protest over his reckless gutting of the Army's leadership, Hegseth took to social media for some middle-school-level bullying.
The Pentagon, asked to account for its leader mocking a kid, offered this: "The X post speaks for itself."
It speaks volumes -- just not the ones they intended. It shows just how deep the rot at the top of the Pentagon runs. The incompetence has been obvious from the start. What's clear now is something uglier: that Pete Hegseth, like so many in Trump's inner circle, is a toxic blend of pettiness, cruelty, and insecurity -- a small man mocking a teenager and her instructor to distract from his own massive and abject failures, which compound day by day.
Hegseth's post prompted Jason Kenney, the former conservative premier of Alberta, to ask a question shared by most Americans: "In the midst of a hot war against a mortal enemy of the United States, the Secretary of War of the world's only super power finds time to troll folks at a cadet camp for teenagers in Vernon, British Columbia. To our many friends in the great United States of America: what's going on?"
The cadet Hegseth singled out had just finished a summer in Canada's cadet program -- a long-running youth organization that teaches kids ages 12 to 18 leadership, citizenship, and community service -- and earned a medal for it, pinned on by the instructor beside her in the photo.
To that cadet, her instructor, and all the young people who take part in Cadets across Canada: thank you for showing what service and leadership actually look like. You have nothing to prove to pathetic trolls.
--> While Pete Hegseth mocks them, you can support them. The Army Cadet League of Canada is the charitable organization that helps make the cadet program possible -- the leadership, citizenship, and community-service training that shaped the young people he chose to sneer at. You can support their work at https://www.armycadetleague.ca/donate/
