“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement,” Will wrote in his op-ed, which was highly critical of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Since 2016 when Will left the Republican Party, he has been of consist critique of the party’s intellectual and moral collapse under Trump’s leadership
Will’s recent op-ed “A sickening moral slum of an administration” is a blistering indictment of the Trump administration’s moral collapse, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the center of a scandal so egregious it borders on war criminality—without even a war to hide behind. Drawing a parallel to a WWII novel where German officers massacred shipwreck survivors, the article exposes how Hegseth allegedly ordered the killing of two men clinging to the wreckage of a destroyed boat near Venezuela—an act that violates the most basic laws of war and human decency. The administration’s response has been a muddle of evasions, contradictions, and cowardice, from Trump’s vague denials to the suspiciously abrupt departure of a four-star admiral days after the killings.
The Kremlin’s Peace Plan, Now Available in a U.S. Edition
But the rot runs deeper. Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State, has tied himself in knots trying to explain away a grotesquely pro-Russian “peace plan” that appears to have been dictated straight from the Kremlin. His reversals and dissembling reveal an administration that not only lacks competence, but also lacks integrity and allegiance to truth.
The op-ed argues that this chaos exposes broader weaknesses in wealthy democracies: complacency, decadence, and a dangerous refusal to face hard realities—especially the sacrifices required to defend freedom. While, adversaries like Vladimir Putin study every contradiction and moral failure with satisfaction, watching America tie itself in knots of deception.
Will warns that America is unraveling under a government that treats deception as policy, cruelty as strength, and shame as obsolete. The killings near Venezuela and the sham Ukraine “peace plan” are symptoms of a nation adrift, led by men who cannot tell the truth because they no longer recognize it. And as Sir Walter Scott wrote, the web of lies grows only more tangled—leaving the American people as the deceived, and the world as the witness to our moral decline.
Who Is George Will Even Talking To?
His op-eds certainly enriches the conversation, but let’s be honest—besides me, who on earth is still reading George Will? Certainly not MAGA!
Will’s audience in the age of MAGA has shrunk and shrinking, but the slices of the American political landscape it includes are
1. Traditional, Intellectual Conservatives who are conservatives who still believe in small government, constitutional restraint, institutional stability, and moral seriousness. They are the heirs of Buckley, Goldwater, and the pre-Trump conservative movement. Will speaks to their longing for a conservatism rooted in ideas rather than grievance.
2. Educated, Suburban, Anti-Trump Republicans gives voice to the professional, older suburban voters, and “country club” Republican’s disillusionment that provides a dignified critique of what the GOP has become.
3. Many center-left readers find Will’s writing appealing because: he is a thoughtful critic of Trump, he upholds democratic norms, he provides historically grounded arguments
These readers may not agree with his economics, but they respect his intellectual consistency.
4. Policy Elites, Academics, and Opinion Leaders editorial boards, political scientists, journalists, law professors and think-tank analysts.
His essays still function as a barometer of “institutional conservative thought” for those who study American politics.
5. Everyone who believes conservatism once had a coherent philosophical spine—and longs to see it again.
In short, Will writes for those who refuse to surrender their intellect or moral compass in the age of MAGA. His audience may be smaller, but it is still reading.
