Pete Hegseth’s American Apocalypse
Oct 8, 2026
The Secretary of Defense harbors violent, authoritarian fantasies about imminent national apocalypse, in which fighting his fellow Americans is necessary to stave off national suicide.

Unless we undo that foundational damage, nothing we do in public schools will change our course toward tyranny and thought control.

That's where we are today: we win or the leftists win, we lose or they lose. And if we win, America can win. If the Left wins, America is going to be lost.

But if Trump loses in 2020, I fear America is doomed. The Democrats - on track to nominate a radical leftist - would complete the political domination they already maintain in our culture, media, and schoolhouses.

At this point - 245 years after our revolution - every time Republicans embrace the trappings of process, conventional wisdom, moderation, and compromise, we accelerate the death of America.

You might be thinking, "Pete, you laid this out in pretty simple terms. Us versus them. America versus the Left. Good versus evil. You're overplaying your hand. It's not that bad." Read on, and think again.

Our country is upside down, and the Marxists are looking to finish us off. That family back in North Carolina, the ones who got me started on this project, got out of the kill zone. They got me out of the kill zone. And now it’s time for you to do the same. Will you?

The classroom is our battlefield, the hearts and minds of our kids the prize. The very survival of the American Republic, and the greatness of Western civilization, are at stake. And, right now, we are losing. The Cultural Marxist Paideia has seized the commanding heights.

This book comes at a moment— and I write this without hyperbole— that we should be in panic mode. Almost desperate. Willing to do anything necessary to defeat the "fundamental transformation" of the American military and end the war on our warriors.

I think our biggest threat is internal. I think it's, I think we're committing cultural suicide and we've lost complete focus on the basics and building blocks of what made Western civilization in America exceptional… we're going to have to fight for all of these other things…if you don't we're in totally uncharted territory where we're trying to keep a republic, keep a country.

The story of Gideon reminds us that we are not only fighting a battle against foreign enemies. Sometimes the fight must begin with a struggle against domestic enemies. Those who would violate the Covenant that binds us as a community of faith and that grants us blessing.

It is motivating to picture what the future could look like, but right now, we are in a firefight. We are pinned down, caught in an enemy near ambush. The enemy has the high ground and is shooting from concealed and fortified positions. We are on the “X,” in the kill zone. Our families, our kids, our country, and our faith are in the crosshairs. We can talk strategy all we want, but our reality right now is tactical. Hand-to-hand combat, face-to-face.

Our future existence as sons and daughters of freedom requires the satisfaction of a single paramount objective: the categorical defeat of the Left. America cannot, and will not, survive otherwise.

This time in our history calls for an AMERICAN CRUSADE. Yes, a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.

The fate of freedom is what is at stake in the 2020 election. The immediate years that follow will, once and for all, determine whether the American experiment in human freedom-the America of our founding-will die, get a national divorce based on irreconcilable cultural and political divisions, or return to its founding principles.

The hour is late for America. Beyond political success, her fate relies on exorcising the leftist specter dominating education, religion, and culture—a 360-degree holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.

The prospect of losing the 2020 election— and its aftermath-makes me shudder…Socialism will suffocate our economy and bankrupt America-in one generation… Leftism will enslave us all with big government until it's enslaved by Islamism… Communist China will rise-and rule the globe. Europe will formally surrender. Islamists will get nuclear weapons and seek to wipe America and Israel off the map…America will decline and die. A national divorce will ensue… This is not fiction, this is a preview…If our American Crusade does not succeed, not only will America be gone but human freedom will be finished.

Unless we undo that foundational damage, nothing we do in public schools will change our course toward tyranny and thought control.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete, and David Goodwin. Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation (New York, NY: Broadside Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022)

That's where we are today: we win or the leftists win, we lose or they lose. And if we win, America can win. If the Left wins, America is going to be lost.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 37.

But if Trump loses in 2020, I fear America is doomed. The Democrats - on track to nominate a radical leftist - would complete the political domination they already maintain in our culture, media, and schoolhouses.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 35-6.

At this point - 245 years after our revolution - every time Republicans embrace the trappings of process, conventional wisdom, moderation, and compromise, we accelerate the death of America.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 35.

You might be thinking, "Pete, you laid this out in pretty simple terms. Us versus them. America versus the Left. Good versus evil. You're overplaying your hand. It's not that bad." Read on, and think again.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 61.

Our country is upside down, and the Marxists are looking to finish us off. That family back in North Carolina, the ones who got me started on this project, got out of the kill zone. They got me out of the kill zone. And now it’s time for you to do the same. Will you?

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete, and David Goodwin. Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation (New York, NY: Broadside Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022)

The classroom is our battlefield, the hearts and minds of our kids the prize. The very survival of the American Republic, and the greatness of Western civilization, are at stake. And, right now, we are losing. The Cultural Marxist Paideia has seized the commanding heights.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete, and David Goodwin. Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation (New York, NY: Broadside Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022)

This book comes at a moment— and I write this without hyperbole— that we should be in panic mode. Almost desperate. Willing to do anything necessary to defeat the "fundamental transformation" of the American military and end the war on our warriors.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free (New York: Fox News Books, 2024), 5.

I think our biggest threat is internal. I think it's, I think we're committing cultural suicide and we've lost complete focus on the basics and building blocks of what made Western civilization in America exceptional… we're going to have to fight for all of these other things…if you don't we're in totally uncharted territory where we're trying to keep a republic, keep a country.

SOURCE
https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/shawn-ryan-show/143-pete-hegseth-operator-syndrome-military-industrial-complex-and-the-war-on-warriors

The story of Gideon reminds us that we are not only fighting a battle against foreign enemies. Sometimes the fight must begin with a struggle against domestic enemies. Those who would violate the Covenant that binds us as a community of faith and that grants us blessing.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free (New York: Fox News Books, 2024), 207.

It is motivating to picture what the future could look like, but right now, we are in a firefight. We are pinned down, caught in an enemy near ambush. The enemy has the high ground and is shooting from concealed and fortified positions. We are on the “X,” in the kill zone. Our families, our kids, our country, and our faith are in the crosshairs. We can talk strategy all we want, but our reality right now is tactical. Hand-to-hand combat, face-to-face.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete, and David Goodwin. Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation (New York, NY: Broadside Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022)

Our future existence as sons and daughters of freedom requires the satisfaction of a single paramount objective: the categorical defeat of the Left. America cannot, and will not, survive otherwise.

This time in our history calls for an AMERICAN CRUSADE. Yes, a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 1-2.

The fate of freedom is what is at stake in the 2020 election. The immediate years that follow will, once and for all, determine whether the American experiment in human freedom-the America of our founding-will die, get a national divorce based on irreconcilable cultural and political divisions, or return to its founding principles.

The hour is late for America. Beyond political success, her fate relies on exorcising the leftist specter dominating education, religion, and culture—a 360-degree holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 14.

The prospect of losing the 2020 election— and its aftermath-makes me shudder…Socialism will suffocate our economy and bankrupt America-in one generation… Leftism will enslave us all with big government until it's enslaved by Islamism… Communist China will rise-and rule the globe. Europe will formally surrender. Islamists will get nuclear weapons and seek to wipe America and Israel off the map…America will decline and die. A national divorce will ensue… This is not fiction, this is a preview…If our American Crusade does not succeed, not only will America be gone but human freedom will be finished.

SOURCE
Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free (New York: Center Street, 2020), 299.
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