他挺过了美国中期选举惨败的指责，也躲过了一次弹劾投票，但接下来将是一场接一场的战斗——他不可能全部获胜。就像蜉蝣短暂而奇妙的生命周期一样，我们日后回望美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯的职业生涯时，或许会将其视为特朗普时代的标志性任命：也就是说，一个荒唐至极的人被赋予了非凡权力，而尽管本周弹劾他的尝试被搁置，这段任期最终可能仍会证明是极其短暂的。
He has survived blame for the US midterms disaster and dodged an impeachment vote, but it will be one battle after another now – and he can’t win them all Like the brief, wondrous cycle of the mayfly, we may come to look back on the career of Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence who cheekily rebranded himself secretary of war, as the defining appointment of the Trump era: that is, one in which extraordinary power was handed to a man of cartoonish inappropriateness and which, despite this week’s shelved attempt to impeach him, may still turn out to have been luminously short-lived.
明年1月，民主党人将在两院占据多数席位，很可能再次尝试弹劾赫格塞斯。与此同时，我们只能旁观并揣测他的意义。
In January, the Democrats will assume a majority in both chambers and are likely to have another crack at impeaching Hegseth. In the meantime, we can only look on and wonder at his meaning.
在特朗普的内阁任命中，包括小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪和克里斯蒂·诺姆，还能成为西翼最明显不合格的人，这确实不简单，但自近两年前宣誓就职以来，赫格塞斯轻松地击退了任何对其王冠的挑战者。本周，即将离任的肯塔基州共和党众议员托马斯·马西对赫格塞斯提出了八项弹劾条款，即官方准则所称的“重罪和轻罪”，指控赫格塞斯犯有非法行为，包括未经授权对伊朗发动战争并在委内瑞拉实现政权更迭，从而违反宪法。艾玛·布罗克斯是《卫报》专栏作家
It is quite something, in the context of Trump cabinet appointments that have included Robert F Kennedy Jr and Kristi Noem, to be the most glaringly underqualified person in the West Wing, but since being sworn in almost two years ago, Hegseth has comfortably seen off any rivals to his crown. This week, eight articles of impeachment, or “high crimes and misdemeanours” as the official rubric has it, were levied against him by Thomas Massie, an outgoing Republican congressman from Kentucky, who accused Hegseth of illegal acts including violating the constitution by conducting an unauthorised war with Iran and effecting regime change in Venezuela. Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist