Daddy’s Home

President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on January 20. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Pete Hegseth may not be qualified to lead the Pentagon, but in every other respect he is a perfect fit for the Trump administration. In the months since Donald Trump nominated Hegseth for Defense secretary, allegations of rape, alcohol abuse, and now domestic violence have surrounded the Army National Guard veteran. Hegseth’s former sister-in-law Danielle Hegseth said in a sworn affidavit that the nominee made his second wife, Samantha, fear for her safety. According to the affidavit, Samantha Hegseth “had a safe word to indicate if she was in danger at home,” the Associated Press reported earlier this week, and she texted it to Danielle in 2015 or 2016. Danielle Hegseth also claimed that Samantha told her that she once hid in a closet at home because she was afraid.

Hegseth has denied the allegations through his attorney, who called Danielle Hegseth an “anti-Trump far left Democrat who is divorced from Mr. Hegseth’s brother and never got along with the Hegseth family” in a statement. Samantha Hegseth also told NBC News that there was no “physical abuse” in the marriage and that she would not be commenting publicly on the matter. Trump stands by his man, as do Senate Republicans. “I don’t really have anything to offer,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas told the AP. “I was involved in the Kavanaugh hearings, where people came out of the closet making all sorts of false allegations.” The Kavanaugh comparison is apt, though not the way that Cornyn likely intended. Republicans are prepared to once more advance the career of a man accused of violence against women. With Trump as president and party leader, how could they do anything else?

Trump’s violent masculinity has always been part of his appeal. The notorious Access Hollywood tape, on which he spoke of grabbing women by their genitalia, did not sway his base in 2016. Years later, voters looked past a jury verdict that found he had sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll. During his successful campaign for reelection, he actively courted young men, an effort propped up by an ecosystem of right-leaning male YouTubers and podcasters, and in the process tapped into a feverish anti-feminist backlash. At his inauguration, he surrounded himself with tech moguls like Mark Zuckerberg, who recently told Joe Rogan that “a lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered.” Zuckerberg added, “Masculine energy is good, and obviously, society has plenty of that, but I think corporate culture was really trying to get away from it.” Earlier this month, Trump supporters — including the right-wing rapper Tom MacDonald and Roseanne Barr, who destroyed her own career in entertainment with a series of racist tweets — released a music video called “Daddy’s Home.” The chorus is simple: “Now your daddy’s home,” they sing over and over.

If Trump is Daddy (a grotesque thought on several levels), then we are all his children — and he must keep his family in line with harsh discipline. Trump assumed office only on Monday, but his administration is already marked by its embrace of violence both rhetorical and physical. He pardoned more than 1,500 January 6 rioters, including Stewart Rhodes of the far-right Oath Keepers group, despite his conviction for seditious conspiracy. Rhodes’s ex-wife has accused him of abuse; on Wednesday, Rhodes visited Capitol Hill to meet with at least one lawmaker, according to the AP. Trump has nominated Andy Puzder, a fast-food mogul, to be his ambassador to the European Union, though Puzder’s ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, once accused him of domestic violence. “Most men who are in positions like that don’t leave marks,” she said on a 1990 taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show. “The damage that I sustained you can’t see. It’s permanent … They don’t hit you in the face. They’re too smart. They don’t hit you in front of everyone.” (Fierstein later retracted her claims, and Puzder has denied any abuse.)

Trump has done more than elevate allegedly violent men. He has threatened his political foes, saying that he would consider military action against “the enemy from within,” and he has threatened territorial expansion at the expense of Canada, Panama, and Greenland. Trump’s bluster is revealing, not just for what it says about the president’s political goals but for what it says about the version of masculinity he wants to embody. Traditional masculinity always carries with it the threat of its enforcement. That threat can be physical, or it can be political, or it can be both. It’s not a coincidence that the new Trump administration worked quickly to assert traditional gender norms by targeting trans people via executive order or that Trump aligns himself with figures like Hegseth. The president isn’t all bluster; the familiar chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” are more than empty words. His administration is prepared to rain hell on its enemies — to enforce a hierarchy with Pete Hegseth at the top and his three wives at the bottom. The Trump White House is telling the nation’s minorities what they can expect for the next four years, and that is violence. Be careful now, Daddy’s home.