On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said that the Pentagon has “a valueless foreign policy,” and “We’re a much better country when we have values of free markets, freedom, and that we build our friendships around these values, and also our interests. It should be both.”
While discussing the prospect of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth running for president in 2028, “I am much more interested in finding a Reagan-type Republican for the party in 2028. We have some great people who have more of traditional conservative principles, peace through strength. They know that our alliances are important, like NATO, and instead of undermining key alliances and not really standing up to, say, Putin and Xi, but being tougher on our allies, I think that traditional Republicans know that’s not a good way of improving our national security. We’re better when we have strong alliances and trust with our friends, we’re also stronger when we have clear principles that we say, hey, Putin invaded an innocent country, bombing citizens every night, these are war crimes. We should have a moral clarity to our national security.”
He continued, “And what we’re seeing in the Pentagon right now is the policy is called flexible realism. Well, flexible realism to me means we don’t have any true principles or values. It’s all about what’s in it for us. And it may work one day, then we’re going to do this, but the next day, we’re going to change our mind. That’s flexible realism. That’s how I hear it. We’re a much better country when we have values of free markets, freedom, and that we build our friendships around these values, and also our interests. It should be both. But right now I see a valueless foreign policy, and it’s clearly being articulated that way in the Pentagon.”
Earlier, Bacon stated that Hegseth is “following the president’s orders and following his wishes.”
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