President-elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday night surprise pick of a conservative commentator and television host as his Pentagon chief shocked Washington, which had expected the nominee to be a seasoned lawmaker or someone with defense policy experience.
National security officials and defense analysts had braced for surprises from Trump after experiencing his first four years in office. But even grading on that curve, they say the announcement of Fox News host and decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth caught them totally off-guard.
“[Trump] puts the highest value on loyalty,” Eric Edelman, who served as the Pentagon’s top policy official during the Bush administration, said in an interview. “It appears that one of the main criteria that’s being used is, how well do people defend Donald Trump on television?”
One assessment was more blunt. “Who the fuck is this guy?” said a defense industry lobbyist who was granted anonymity to offer candid views. The lobbyist said they had hoped for “someone who actually has an extensive background in defense. That would be a good start.”
The pick will do little to quell fears inside the Pentagon and beyond that Trump, who jousted with his own defense secretaries, plans this time to install a loyalist who will unquestioningly carry out his policies. Trump’s campaign trail rhetoric has primed fears that his second term could see a swift and divisive overhaul at the Pentagon.
Trump’s return is expected to bring a collective rollback of Biden administration policies, likely reinstating a ban on transgender troops, ending abortion travel policies, reigniting battles over bases named for Confederate figures, slashing diversity programs and the use of troops on U.S. soil against civil unrest and his political enemies.
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Late in his first term, Trump also ordered the pullout of thousands of U.S. troops from Germany, something the Pentagon was unable to accomplish in the short amount of time he had left in office.
Hegseth’s selection drew immediate backlash from veterans group leaders who opposed him when he was floated for Veterans Affairs secretary during Trump’s first term. He is a former executive director for Vets for Freedom and former CEO of Concerned Veterans for America — a group advocating for outsourcing of health care for veterans that was funded by the Koch brothers.
“Hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history. And the most overtly political. Brace yourself, America,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Independent Veterans of America, said in a post on X Tuesday night.
Rieckhoff said he had believed that Hegseth — “a highly effective and ferocious media, culture and political warrior for MAGA. And beyond loyal to and trusted by Trump” — would be Trump’s pick for chief of staff or press secretary.
“Very Trump,” another industry lobbyist said. “I’m sure they vetted him.”
During the first Trump administration, Hegseth played a pivotal role in several episodes in which Trump inserted himself in the military justice system in order to grant clemency to troops convicted of war crimes.
The pick ensures that his confirmation hearing will be must-see TV, with a pugnacious television personality used to sparring on national security and culture war issues squaring off against a Senate Armed Services Committee with both friendly backers and hostile interrogators ready for their own moment praising the president’s pick or damning the choice.
“The dumbest phrase on planet earth in the military is our diversity is our strength,” Hegseth said on a podcast this month.
Amid fears Trump may use his powers as commander-in-chief to purge the top generals or civil servants, politicizing the Defense Department, Trump’s pick to be Pentagon chief has explicitly confirmed that he could target military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown, in an effort to remove diversity and inclusion programs at the agency.
Source – Politico
