Department of Offense: Inside Pete Hegseth’s Bombastic, Chaotic Tenure

Inside the Hive

Vanity Fair

News

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The scandal-scarred Defense Secretary is hanging on—but for how long? On this episode, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones, along with executive editor Claire Howorth and Hive editor Michael Calderone, discuss Pete Hegseth’s pugilistic style and tumultuous tenure atop the Department of Defense. Plus, special correspondent Gabriel Sherman joins the conversation to provide perspective from inside Trumpworld and reveals why the president is reluctant to break with his friend from Fox.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Michael, Claire, I have given you many minutes to come up with a headline for this episode.
0:06.8	There has been furious typing.
0:08.8	Give me your best shot, Michael.
0:10.4	For Pete's sake, how long will Donald Trump stick with the scandal-scarred Hegeseth?
0:16.1	Hmm.
0:16.8	Scandal-scarred.
0:17.8	Pretty good.
0:18.8	All right.
0:19.7	Department of Offense.
0:20.9	How the bombastic, nationalistic Pete Heggseth became one of the Trump administration's biggest losers.
0:26.9	I do love a biggest loser.
0:29.7	This is a tough one.
0:31.7	Mine was too many words.
0:33.8	How about we edit in post?
0:36.2	Perfect.
0:36.7	All right. Let's go with Department of Offense.
0:44.6	Welcome to Inside the Hive from Vanity Fair,
0:47.3	podcast about power and the people who love it.
0:49.9	I'm Radica Jones, the editor of Vanity Fair,
0:52.4	and I'm joined by executive editor Claire Hoarth. Hi, Radica. And Hive editor, Michael Calderon. Hi, Radica Jones, the editor of Vanity Fair. And I'm joined by executive editor Claire Hoarth.
0:54.9	Hi, Radica.
0:55.7	And Hive editor, Michael Calderon.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vanity Fair, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vanity Fair and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.