US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on April 6, 2026. Photo: OSV News / Evan Vucci, Reuters. and Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito. Photo: Public Domain. The purpose of this article is to suggest that, in certain respects, the actions of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth show the influence – direct or indirect – of Italian Renaissance political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527). I had an ‘epiphany’ in this regard while attending a conference in Florence recently on the…
