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OPINION: Yale historian Tim Snyder is really worried about the Department of Defense nominee

Yale University historian Tim Snyder has one trick up his sleeve, but he’s dedicated to using it as much as he can: Donald Trump and his allies are dictators in waiting.

The historian recently wrote a thread on X (formerly Twitter), detailing how Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, is “part of a decapitation strike” on America.

“Hegseth, a Christian Reconstructionist, believes that Americans should be governed not by law or by the Constitution but by God – as interpreted of course by Hegseth and his friends,” Snyder wrote on X on Tuesday.

If it sounds familiar, you may have read it on Snyder’s Substack on November 24, 2024 or similar complaints on November 15 of last year, as Charles Cooke pointed out at National Review.

Snyder also said Hegseth “could be counted upon to ignore threats to America from abroad, and to use a purged and politicized military against ‘enemies within.’”

“This is consistent with Trump’s avowed intention to build a kind of dictatorship on the ruins of a dysfunctional government,” the historian said.

“Trump’s nomination of Hegseth is best understood as part of a decapitation strike against the republic,” Snyder concluded. “A Christian Reconstructionist war on Americans led from the Department of Defense is likely to break the United States,” he predicted.

(Snyder’s rantings have received criticism from even the liberal Nation, who described one of his books as “the apotheosis of a certain paranoid style that has emerged among liberals in Trump’s wake.”)

13. Hegseth thus represents a policy of regime change. Trump’s nomination of Hegseth is best understood as part of a decapitation strike against the republic. A Christian Reconstructionist war on Americans led from the Department of Defense is likely to break the United States.

— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) January 14, 2025

In reality, Hegseth is not going to lead a “decapitation strike” against the United States. Many professors live in a bubble and watch too much MSNBC and CNN. Thus, they believe anyone who is to the right of Mitt Romney is a threat to America and has secret plans to destroy the country and build a dictatorship.

Snyder’s rantings fit nicely in a faculty lounge and will probably make him a valuable contributor to The Contrarian but they don’t represent any sort of reality.

In reality, Hegseth is a veteran who has the potential to effectively communicate Trump’s visions thanks to his background as a Fox News host. His outsider experience could make him a good person to shake up the military, which has unfortunately become infected with wokeness.

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