President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Fox News host and retired Army veteran Pete Hegseth as his nominee for secretary of defense.
In a statement, President Trump described Hegseth as “tough, smart, and a true believer in America First.”
“With Pete in command, America’s enemies will be on guard. Our military will be great again and America will never back down,” Trump said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) praised Trump’s selection, calling Hegseth “a great choice.”
“Pete brings a lot to the table, I think he’s got a lot of experience and he’s reform-minded in areas that need reform, so I’m excited about his selection,” Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill. ”, but did not go into details. Which programs does he think need to be changed?
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he was caught off guard by President Trump’s announcement.
“I’ll confess, I didn’t know who Pete Hegseth was until about 20 minutes ago,” Smith told reporters.
“He doesn’t seem to have a lot of background in (Department of Defense) policy. To the extent that he has worked on such things, it’s been around veterans policy, not Department of Defense issues. So , the lack of experience is a concern,” Smith said.
“We will see what his plans are because we haven’t heard what his plans are so far,” he added. “But given the lack of experience, this is surprising and alarming. As you know, the Department of Defense is the largest bureaucracy in the world. It is difficult to run it, and it is difficult to run it. I think it will be a challenge.”
In an interview on the Sean Ryan Show podcast last week, Hegseth blamed what he called an “awakening” within the military for what he called diversity, equity and inclusion, and called for a “course correction.” He outlined his plan to do so.
“First of all, you have to fire — you have to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and obviously you’re going to bring in a new secretary of defense. But any of the generals that were involved But — generals, admirals, whatever was involved, anything that caused DEI, it has to be abolished,” Hegseth said.
During his first administration, Trump nominated James Mattis and later Mark Esper to head the Pentagon.
Mattis resigned in December 2018, stating in his resignation letter that he and Trump had different views on “treating our allies with respect” and “taking a hard look” at America’s adversaries and competitors. suggested something different.
President Trump fired Esper in 2020 after disagreements over the use of active-duty troops to quell nationwide racial justice protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Amid a flurry of selections for his second administration, President Trump announced early Tuesday that he would nominate former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to head the CIA.
On Monday, he said he would nominate Rep. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) to be ambassador to the United Nations and Lee Zeldin, a former House Republican from New York, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
On Sunday, he named immigration hardliner Tom Homan his “border czar.”
The first major announcement of President Trump’s administration came last week, when he said campaign manager Susie Wiles would become White House chief of staff.
