Pete Hegseth dresses for defense

He may be President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most “unconventional” Cabinet nominee (in the words of Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee), but as Pete Hegseth took a seat in Room G50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building for his confirmation hearing as defense secretary, he looked like a spit-polished officer in the Trump army.

Mr. Hegseth, who joined in the kind of applause and chants of “USA, USA” usually reserved for celebrities, was not wearing the National Guard uniform or the dusty boots of his own military service, which he referred to more than once during his testimony (in of someone wondering how fluent he was in the common language of costume) but he was wearing a de facto uniform of the new administration. One right next to the classic Washington uniform and clearly calibrated to what Mr. Hegseth in his testimony called “the most important deployment of my life.”

To be specific, he wore the now signature Trump uniform: the pale blue suit, pristine white shirt with a spread collar, and perfectly knotted red tie, this time with subtle navy stripes that serve as a Pavlovian allusion to the American flag. The uniform adopted by Trump acolytes like Vice President-elect JD Vance. The one that is a sign of loyalty not only to the country, but to Mr. Trump himself.

In case anyone didn’t get the picture, Mr. Hegseth a pocket square with an Old Glory print — one he also favored during many of his previous visits to Capitol Hill — in matching red, white and blue. Not to mention some star studded socks and a flag belt buckle.

His only jewelry was a wedding ring (his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, sat just behind him), a lapel pin representing the top of 187th Infantry Regimentand a Killed in Action bracelet worn in honor of a soldier, Jorge M. Oliveirawho lost their lives in Afghanistan – a series of accessories that functioned as a form of value signaling.

His hair was pulled back without a strand out of place. During the occasional interruptions from the crowd, his jaw was heroically clenched.

Saved were almost all of his tattoos: a large Jerusalem Cross, a “Join or Die” snake and an American flag with a stripe replaced by an AR-15 among others. Only a hint of ink, reaching from his right forearm to his wrist, peeked out from a carefully buttoned shirt sleeve. (It appeared to be the back end of his “We the People” script.)

What remained was the stars ‘n’ stripes cowboy hat. Invisible was Uncle Sam’s jacket lining, which Mr. Hegseth occasionally flashed in his role as a Fox News host — though perhaps contained under the neatly buttoned jacket. (Flashes from shirt sleeves hinted that there might be some red underneath.)

He certainly didn’t look like the hard-drinking, cheating, budget-busting person that critics of his nomination had described. He looked clean-cut, not politically correct, but patriotically correct. How could anyone doubt his love for his country or his standards? He wore them on his back.

And if his suit was a little more extreme than the usual Capitol or CEO look — if it jumped a little more through the screen than the navy jacket, white shirt and red polka dot tie worn by Senator Rick Scott of Florida or the navy jacket , pale blue shirt and patterned red tie worn by Sen. Angus King of Maine or even the navy dress and matching jacket worn by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — that was close enough.

In the middle of all the theater and speeches from the many committee members and Mr. Hegseth himself, his uniform offered an argument of its own. One that had less to do with the details of running one of the largest departments in government than with his ability to play the part, in a show designed by the country’s up-and-coming executive producer.