据现任和前任国防官员透露，五角大楼内部正日益频繁地讨论接替陷入困境的国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯的人选。佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯位居多份名单之首。迈克·沃尔兹——这位因2025年“Signal门”通讯丑闻而声名狼藉的前国家安全顾问、现任美国驻联合国大使——也被提及为候选人之一。
Replacements for embattled War Secretary Pete Hegseth are increasingly being discussed at the Pentagon, according to current and former defense officials. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at the top of many lists. Mike Waltz, the disgraced former national security adviser at the center of the 2025 Signalgate messaging scandal and currently U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has also been mentioned.
这些名字以及其他人选的浮出水面，正值赫格塞斯面临最早下周发起的两党弹劾行动，正拼命争取保住职位。
Those and other names have emerged as Hegseth is facing down a bipartisan impeachment effort as early as next week and is in a mad scramble to hold onto his job.
官员们承认，德桑蒂斯和沃尔兹都是糟糕透顶的选择，但所有接受《拦截报》采访的人都表示，即使是最成问题的人选，也比赫格塞斯强。后者因“Signal门”、清洗高级军事将领、2025年无法击败也门胡塞武装、2026年无法赢得伊朗战争、针对所谓“贩毒船”实施法外杀戮、削弱透明度和破坏问责制、以及痴迷于军人睾酮水平等种种干扰项，在五角大楼内外遭到严厉谴责。
Officials acknowledged that both DeSantis and Waltz were dismal choices, but all who spoke with The Intercept said even the most problematic picks would be preferable to Hegseth, who has been excoriated at the Pentagon and beyond for Signal-gate, his purge of top military leaders, his inability to defeat Yemen’s Houthis in 2025 or win the Iran war in 2026, his campaign of extrajudicial killings in attacks on so-called drug boats, his efforts to weaken transparency and scuttle accountability, and his obsession with troops’ testosterone levels, among other distractions.
在一场选举惨败让民主党牢牢掌控众议院和参议院之后，赫格塞斯成了他两年来一直视若无睹的议员们的攻击靶子。“行尸走肉，”一位官员在《拦截报》周四发表的深度报道中说道。该报道发布几小时后，赫格塞斯发起了一场绝望的保职行动，动用他在福克斯新闻主持人时期磨练出的煽动文化战争、宣泄不满、鼓动其上司和“让美国再次伟大”铁杆支持者的技巧。
In the wake of an election rout that handed Democrats firm control of the House and the Senate, Hegseth is in the crosshairs of lawmakers whom he has treated with contempt for two years. “Dead man walking,” said one official in an exposé published by The Intercept Thursday. Hours after publication of that report, Hegseth launched a desperate bid to stave off his ouster, employing his Fox News-host-honed skills at fanning culture war flames to air his grievances and whip up the support of his boss and the MAGA faithful.
在发布于X平台的一段视频中，这位自称“战争部长”的人毫不留情面地表态：“他真的是为这个国家挡了一颗子弹，”赫格塞斯在对特朗普阿谀奉承中说道。“他挥舞拳头高呼‘战斗、战斗、战斗’，我们也将如此。”这位近来自称率领“地球上最强大、最致命、准备最充分的军队”的负责人，将自己塑造成受围攻的受害者，并将自己与特朗普捆绑在一起，赤裸裸地试图保住饭碗。
In a video posted on X, the self-styled secretary of war pulled out the stops: “He literally took a bullet for this nation,” Hegseth said amid obsequious flattery of Trump. “He shook his fist and said ‘fight, fight, fight,’ and so will we.”The chief of what he recently called “the most powerful, most lethal and most prepared military on the planet,” Hegseth cast himself as a besieged victim and tied himself to Trump in a naked attempt to save his job.
“一名心怀不满、已落败的众议员，连同他所有的民主党盟友，也向我本人提交了虚假的弹劾条款，就像他们曾两次试图弹劾特朗普总统一样，”赫格塞斯在五角大楼外拍摄的视频中抱怨道。
“A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth carped in a video filmed outside the Pentagon.
赫格塞斯指的是即将离任的众议员托马斯·马西（共和党-肯塔基州），后者周三表示，计划在众议院下周复会时重新提交针对重罪和轻罪的弹劾条款。自从中期选举大胜以来，许多民主党人已表示有意加入马西推翻赫格塞斯的行动，其中包括来自纽约的众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯，他有望成为下一任议长。
Hegseth was referring to outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who said Wednesday that he plans to reintroduce articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors when the House is back in session next week. Numerous Democrats have indicated a desire to join Massie’s effort to oust Hegseth since their midterm election landslide, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is poised to be the next speaker.
赫格塞斯致特朗普的信函触及了许多美国选民似乎在周二的选举大胜中予以否决的敏感议题。他吹嘘将“怪诞与觉醒”赶出军队，并炮轰他和特朗普的敌人。“为什么民主党人和深层政府激进分子真正恨我们？因为我们一个接一个、毫不道歉地推倒了他们的圣牛，”赫格塞斯列举了一系列他推倒的事物，例如多元、公平与包容倡议；军队应对气候变化的努力；以邦联领袖命名的军事基地更名；以及跨性别现役军人的权利。
Hegseth’s missive to Trump hit many hot-button issues that Americans seemingly repudiated in Tuesday’s electoral landslide. He boasted about driving “the weird and the woke” out of the military and took aim at his and Trump’s enemies. “Why do the Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us? Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one and without apology,” said Hegseth, who rattled off a list of things he has torn down, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; military efforts to combat climate change; the rechristening of military bases named for Confederate leaders; and the rights of trans service members.
国防部首席发言人肖恩·帕内尔策划了一项“末日计划”，其中包括国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯的视频发泄，此事最早由CNN报道，并经一名与《拦截者》交谈的国防官员证实。与此同时，国防部下属发起了一场协调一致的社交媒体行动，试图将赫格塞斯的命运与总统绑定，内容为赫格塞斯摆姿势的照片，配文“站立。战斗。捍卫共和国。”
Hegseth’s video rant was part of a doomsday plan coordinated by chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, first reported by CNN and corroborated by a defense official who spoke with The Intercept. It was accompanied by a coordinated campaign of social media posts by Pentagon underlings trying to tie Hegseth’s fortunes to the president, consisting of photos of the war secretary posturing accompanied by the text, “STAND. FIGHT. DEFEND THE REPUBLIC.”
官员们表示，这是一项厚颜无耻的尝试，旨在将特朗普未来任何解职赫格塞斯的举动描绘成总统的巨大失败，但帕内尔的这招“绝地长传”可能会奏效。“很悲哀。但可能行得通，因为特朗普太容易操纵了，”一名国防官员说。“赫格塞斯知道，他面对的是一个拥有三岁孩子心智的总统。”
While it was a brazen attempt to cast any future effort by Trump to cut him loose as an enormous defeat for the president, officials said Parnell’s Hail Mary could succeed. “It’s sad. But it may work because Trump is so easy to manipulate,” said one defense official. “Hegseth knows he is dealing with a president with the mind of a three-year-old.”
在国防部周四下午的社交媒体轰炸期间，一名赫格塞斯的下属给这位记者发来了一段2013年电影《华尔街之狼》的片段，片中莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥饰演的股票经纪人在宣布辞职并与证券交易委员会达成协议的中途突然反悔，宣称：“我他妈的不走了！…… 他们他妈的需要一颗拆楼球才能把我弄出去！”众议院历史上仅弹劾过两位内阁部长：1876年的战争部长威廉·贝尔纳普，以及2024年的国土安全部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯。
During the Pentagon’s Thursday afternoon social media blitz, one of those Hegseth underlings messaged this reporter a clip from the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s stockbroker character pivots mid-way through announcing his resignation and a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, declaring: “I’m not fucking leaving! … They’re gonna need a fuckin’ wrecking ball to take me outta here!”The House has only impeached two Cabinet secretaries: William Belknap, the secretary of war, in 1876; and Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in 2024.
这两种情况下参议院均未投票定罪。一名武装部队委员会成员的国会助理员表示，即便马西的“跛脚鸭”弹劾措施在众议院通过，也极可能在参议院搁置，因为多数党领袖约翰·图恩（共和党-南达科他州）几乎没有动力将其提交表决。尽管如此，一些评论员预测，赫格塞斯可能熬不过这个周末，更别提这个月或今年了。
In neither case did the Senate vote to convict. Should Massie’s lame-duck impeachment measure succeed in the House, it would likely languish in the Senate where Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would have little incentive to bring it to a vote, said a congressional staffer for a member on the Armed Services Committee. Still, some pundits predict Hegseth may not survive the weekend, much less the month or the year.
如果赫格塞斯被免职，争夺其职位的人绝不在少数。除了德桑蒂斯和沃尔茨，五角大楼或国会山上流传的其他名字还包括爱荷华州参议员乔尼·恩斯特，她是一名退役军官，选择不在今年竞选连任；以及在密歇根州参议员竞选中落败的共和党人迈克·罗杰斯，他败给了民主党人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德。这些名字中的一些出现在退役海军四星上将、前北约盟军最高指挥官、拥有深厚五角大楼背景的全球投资公司凯雷的合伙人兼副董事长詹姆斯·斯塔夫里迪斯周四在X平台上的一篇帖子中。斯塔夫里迪斯还点名了特朗普的前国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥。
If and when Hegseth is ousted, there will be no shortage of people jockeying to take his place. In addition to DeSantis and Waltz, other names bandied about at the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill include Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a retired military officer who chose not to run for reelection this year, as well as failed Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who was defeated by Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. Some of those names were mentioned in a Thursday post on X by James Stavridis, a retired four-star Navy admiral, former supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and partner and vice chair of Carlyle, a global investment firm with deep Pentagon ties. Stavridis also named Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state.
虽然德桑蒂斯和特朗普在2024年共和党总统初选期间曾是势不两立的对手，但这位即将卸任的佛罗里达州州长、被视为2028年共和党总统候选人的热门人选，此后已公开支持特朗普那些荒诞的举措。为了推进特朗普的反移民议程，德桑蒂斯仓促建立（随后又迅速关闭）了“短吻鳄阿尔卡特拉兹”拘留中心，国土安全部监察长发现该设施不符合一系列联邦和州标准，是一个人间地狱。这位佛罗里达州州长也是第一位在官方文件中使用特朗普重新命名的“美洲湾”来指代墨西哥湾的官员。
While DeSantis and Trump had been bitter rivals during the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign, the outgoing Florida governor and assumed 2028 GOP presidential hopeful has since vocally supported Trump’s crackpot initiatives. To advance Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, DeSantis hastily constructed (and then quickly shuttered) “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention hellhole that the Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog found did not comply with a slew of federal and state standards. The Florida governor was also the first official to use Trump’s renamed “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico, in an official document.
在共和党满目疮痍的废墟之中，德桑蒂斯——这位长期充当文化战士、靠着他所谓的“觉醒性别意识形态”跻身全国舞台的人物——迅速调整了方向。“形势变了，重点自然也就变了，”他在周三表示。“四年前，我们正处于‘觉醒’浪潮的顶峰。……现在，议题不同了，共和党人似乎在某些我看到的广告里，花那么多钱，其实是在打昨天的仗。”
Amid the rubble of a devastated Republican Party, DeSantis — a longtime culture warrior who rode what he called what he called “woke gender ideology” to national prominence — quickly pivoted. “The ground shifts and the emphasis, then, is on different things,” he said on Wednesday. “Four years ago, we were in that peak woke era. … Now, the issues are different and Republicans, it seemed like, in some of the ads I was seeing, with how much money they were spending, they really were fighting yesterday’s battle.”
德桑蒂斯的军旅背景也令人担忧。作为法官辩护军团的一名中尉——这个角色类似于律师事务所的一年级助理律师——他曾在古巴关塔那摩湾那个臭名昭著的美军监狱服役。他还曾在失败的伊拉克“永久战争”中服役，担任海豹突击队第一分队指挥官的高级法律顾问，驻扎在费卢杰。
DeSantis also has a troubling military background. As a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps — a role akin to that of a first-year associate at a law firm — he served at the notorious American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He also served in the failed forever war in Iraq, as a senior legal adviser to the commander of SEAL Team One in Fallujah.
当被问及德桑蒂斯在五角大楼内的地位时，一位官员表示：“任何人都比海格塞斯强。”
Asked about DeSantis’s standing within the Pentagon, an official said: “Anything is better than Hegseth.”