A simple question about ASEAN that Donald Trump’s defence secretary nominee could not answer. Who’s surprised?

He sat there at his confirmation hearing yesterday looking every bit a Trump cabinet aspirant. There is the white shirt, the navy suit, and the very conspicuous red tie. This is MAGA uniform well-loved by the president elect himself. And defence secretary nominee, former Fox News star, Pete Hegseth adopted it, wholesale. There’s also Mr Hegseth’s lack of knowledge, consistent with Donald Trump’s acquaintance with the world at large and, in particular, the truth.

Mr Hegseth was asked by combat veteran/Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, who was born in Bangkok to a Thai mother and an American father, to state the number of member states of ASEAN.

He could not answer, nor name a single ASEAN nation*. Surprised?

Ms Duckworth had questioned: “You talked about the Indo-Pacific a little bit, and I’m glad that you mention it. Can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in ASEAN and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those nations, and how many nations are in ASEAN, by the way?”

Mr Hegseth struggled: “I couldn’t tell you the exact amount (sic) of nations in that… but I know we have allies in South Korea, in Japan, and in AUKUS**, in Australia where we are trying to work on submarines with them.”

“Couldn’t tell” is a poor substitute for I don’t know. As Ms Duckworth responded to the ignoramus: “None of those three countries that you mentioned are in ASEAN, I suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations.”

Oh, the graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, known for his (regular) inebriation as much as his (sexual) indiscretions, does have better hair.

*For our American readers, there are 10 members of ASEAN. They are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Two others, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, are ‘observer states’

**AUKUS is the trilateral security partnership between Australia, United Kingdom and the United States

Screen shot: associatedpress/YouTube