Mothers and Sons

What we learned from Penelope Hegseth's Email to Pete

Penelope Hegseth defends her son Pete as nominee for Defense Secretary on Fox News

Apologies for my absence for a few days. We’ve been closing out the book, which heads to the printers shortly.

Meanwhile, there’s so much going on in the news that it’s hard to know where to focus.

But when I saw the video of Elon Musk striding into the capitol last week, child slung across his shoulders, reminiscent of the way in which wealthy New York women used to flaunt the must-have-impossible-to-get accessory, their Birkin bags, it occurred to me that the sagas of parents and sons are a thing right now.

Elon Musk and son, X, at the Capitol last week

There’s the emergence of Barron Trump - who has literally found his voice - as someone who has “brand value” in the Trump family.

And then there’s the resurfacing headache of the Biden family’s perennial problem child: Hunter who required a literal “get out of jail free’ card from his dad for Christmas.

(I couldn’t understand the surprised reaction in the media about this. Everything we’ve ever known about Joe Biden has indicated that one of his great weaknesses is his lack of a clear eyes and a firm hand around his troubled offspring).

And then there’s the other parent in the news, the one who struck a chord with me: Penelope Hegseth, the Minnesota mom of Trump’s controversial nominee for Defense secretary, Pete.