A key tenet of the MAGA philosophy is that expertise doesn’t matter. It goes beyond that: Because experts know more about certain subjects than the average MAGA person, the mere presence of expertise fucks with their head.

The hate is deep, and MAGA is bound and determined to prove that you pointy-headed experts don’t know anything, and they’ll show you by being better. So far, they are not doing great at proving the Don’t Know Shit Approach is better than knowing what you are doing.

Lots of fail examples to choose from in just three months of Trump 2.0, and a lot of terrible Trump news competing for attention. You might recall several weeks ago the Signal chat scandal.

Well, the Pentagon under Secretary Pete Hegseth—a place where national security meets low-rent reality TV—has given us Signalgate 2.0. In a plot twist worthy of a soap opera on acid, Hegseth reportedly shared detailed military plans for strikes in Yemen via a Signal chat that included his wife, brother, and personal attorney. Because when planning top-secret military operations, who better to consult than your family group chat?

The chaos doesn’t stop there. Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, has decided to exit stage left amid a flurry of firings and internal investigations. Senior advisers Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick were also shown the door, allegedly for leaking information. The Pentagon is now reportedly in “total chaos,” with officials describing the situation as a complete meltdown.

Not a military expert myself, but this doesn’t seem like the best way to run a defense department. The casual handling of classified information and the revolving door of staff departures highlight a disregard for protocol and stability. It’s as if, you know, the administration has no idea what they are doing.

There are rumors flying that Hegseth will not survive any of this. If we had a normal president, I’d say he wouldn’t last the week, but Hegseth is a fellow skeptic of expertise, and Trump might be reluctant to admit he was wrong. We shall see.

The last word goes to Bob Mould.