We zeroe in on one of the more revealing moments of political theater Washington has produced lately — Pete Hegseth’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, where he and General Cain appeared to argue for what can only be described as a $1.5 trillion defense budget backed by nothing resembling a coherent strategy.

Subscribe now

The focal point was Senator Chris Murphy’s deceptively simple question: how, exactly, does the administration plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz? It’s a question that deserves a serious answer, given that the closure is quietly wrecking American farmers, businesses, and families by the day. What we got from Hegseth instead was a collision of bluster and blank stares — a halfhearted promise that economic pressure will eventually force Iran to capitulate, with zero engagement with the historical record that says otherwise.

Murphy walked Hegseth through the failures of that very playbook: Russia’s miscalculation that Ukraine would buckle, America’s own failed bet that North Vietnam would fold under economic siege. Our own intelligence agencies, according to public reporting, assess that Iran can hold out for years. Hegseth’s answer? Essentially: trust us, we looked at all of that. Except he clearly hasn’t.

We also got into the broader context the hearing brushed past — the Republican reconciliation bill moving quietly through Congress that would funnel billions to ICE and the Pentagon with zero Democratic ability to block it, the reality that U.S. “negotiations” with Iran are happening not at a table but through a Pakistan messenger relay, and the uncomfortable truth that when it comes to piracy in international waters, the evidence points closer to home than Hegseth would like to admit.

Drunken Secretary of Defense and the Strait…