Public service, much like broken marriages, can be a costly business.
Take Pete Hegseth, for instance, who forswore his north of $2 million Fox & Friends salary—almost all of the $4.6 million he made over the past two years—for a comparatively meagre $246,400 annual government wage. The steep wage reduction is particularly worrisome for a guy accused of drunken debauchery, sexual assault and mismanaging finances.
Supporting two ex-wives, raising seven children and paying who knows how many lawyers to successfully sweep a pile of stench under the rug can all get very expensive. After divorcing his second wife, Samantha, Hegseth was left with a $25,000 credit card bill, a $498,999 mortgage on a $600,000 family house and a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
![NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 19: FOX anchor Pete Hegseth and meteorologist Janice Dean are on stage as Phil Vassar performs on "FOX & Friends" All-American Summer Concert Series on July 19, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)](https://www.thedailybeast.com/resizer/v2/72CUVTA6UVERPFVVOW4LDPWOPM.jpg?auth=bf3564987738ac564c4ed8171b5103fba3c15470829fb9f788bb741c7f714eab&width=800&height=523)
No doubt his finances are in better shape now but those sharp, blue suits, star-spangled socks and jars of hair gel come at a price and he’s no Elon Musk. Joining Ned’s, D.C.’s fancy new club, would seem appropriate for the new big gun in town, given Leon Black was one of the opening celebrities, but then membership is $5,000-a-year with a $5,000 signing-on fee. Can he expense it?
And to rub it in, he gets to sit at Trump’s Cabinet table next to billionaire Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who made some of his fortune in just one trade by betting against the UK pound and triggering the “Black Wednesday” calamity that almost wrecked the old country’s financial system.
And Bessent owns property in the Bahamas, not in Tennessee. At least, Hegseth can get some pointers from Marco Rubio, the poorest Trump pick. He’s been on a Senate salary since 2011. Sadly it’s too late for him to develop the art of picking stocks as well as Paul and Nancy Pelosi…
Pete, so cruelly maligned in Andy Borowitz’s column and (satirically) accused of drunkenly driving a tank into the Pentagon, may want to ask another new colleague, David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, if he has a spare wing at his newly purchased four-bed $10.3 million pad in NW Washington. And it has 24/7 concierge if he needs a late-night tipple. No tank required.
Daily Beast’s The Swamp is written by David Gardner, Mary Ann Akers and Juliegrace Brufke.