Trump Nominates Army Vet Peter Hegseth for Defense Secretary
Hegseth has been a Fox & Friends Weekend co-host for eight years.
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Peter Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
Trump said in an email:
I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as The Secretary of Defense. Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down. Pete is a graduate of Princeton University, and has a Graduate Degree from Harvard University. He is an Army Combat Veteran who did tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan. For his actions on the battlefield, he was decorated with two Bronze Stars, as well as a Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Pete has been a host at FOX News for eight years, where he used that platform to fight for our Military and Veterans. Pete’s recent book, “The War on Warriors,” spent nine weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, including two weeks at NUMBER ONE. The book reveals the leftwing betrayal of our Warriors, and how we must return our Military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability, and excellence. Pete has also led two Veterans Advocacy organizations, leading the fight for our Warriors, and our great Veterans. Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our “Peace through Strength” policy.
Didn’t see this coming… but not mad about it. @PeteHegseth will be Secretary of Defense. pic.twitter.com/oOp0PnEZoa
— Brian Clowdus (@BrianClowdus) November 13, 2024
I don’t know why @realDonaldTrump won. @PeteHegseth pic.twitter.com/UeZUcSGmWj
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) November 13, 2024
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Comments
Of all the people officially nominated thus far, this is the only one that is going to produce a conformation melee. It won’t matter how qualified he is and what the bona fides of his CV are. He’s never been confirmed by the Senate before in any prior capacity. Most of the people who get one of the three top jobs – State/Defense/Treasury have served in government in some prior position – like Under Secretary – and have one or more confirmations under their belt. Without that experience and the allies built from it on the Hill, it’s gonna be a slog and an early (and real) test of Trump’s power.
Good, let the left squander whatever little political capital they have left fighting against an honorable man like this. The optics won’t be good.
It won’t be a war with the left; Trump’s nominees for these key positions are going to get very little, if any, bipartisan support as it is. It’s going to be a war to keep more than 4 Republicans from defecting. With the likes of Romney, Murkowski & Collins, the margins get tight, fast.
You mean ex senator Romney?
Forgot he’s retiring. That’s one no-voted dodged.
Rubio’s never been confirmed to anything either.
Remind me where Rubio works again? Do you think in his 10-years in the Senate he’s built a few alliances? Probably, right? There’s a reason the richest source for Cabinet Secretaries has traditionally been the US Senate. This is the reason; they’re more easily confirmed.
I’m waiting for his AG pick. That is where a real fight will be, forcing out all the partisans although FBI and CIA will be fun too.
Great nomination. For a good discussion with him, listen to this podcast with Mike Rowe earlier this year, https://mikerowe.com/2024/07/the-war-on-warriors-with-pete-hegseth-ep-393/
Entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/TWIHI393
IMO, Hegseth as VA Secretary would make a good deal more sense than Sec Def.
Either that, or one of the service branch secretaries, probably Secretary of the Army. That would have been a much easier ask and likely would have produced something of a pro forma hearing.
Not just getting through nomination to being confirmed. Hegseth doesn’t have the first hand knowledge and familiarity with how the Pentagon bureaucracy operates. He’s gonna need very strong deputies… Maybe COL Douglas Macgregor who is definitely familiar with the need to enact reforms at DoD?
100% agree on VA. Anyone of these top positions is like being CEO of a company, managing thousands of people. There is nothing in his background to indicate such capability, especially in this case, where many probably should be fired. This leads me to wonder how much Trump has really learned from his many appointment mistakes in his first term. (His exclusion of Pompeo also bothers me, as I thought he was the best appointment made last time.)
Agree about complexity of Sec Def. Definitely NOT Pompeo who is as establishment DC insider as they come and he is not committed to removing the USA from the role of ‘world police’.
Not appointing Pompeo is the best decision he’s made so far
100% agree. Keep the DC establishment out of the kitchen.
I agree but I’m hoping he is holding that for Tulsi. Hegseth, while a good man and great patriot, is an odd choice as Sec of Defense.
Why?
Yeah, of those two names I would have preferred Tulsi Gabbard as Sec Def and Hegseth as VA Sec. She’s a combat Veteran and an opponent of the neocon forever war grifters cosponsored the ‘No more Presidential War act’. She served 5 terms on the Armed Services Committee so is intimately familiar with the Pentagon bureaucracy and has her military experience from enlisted Soldier to LTC to buttress it.
Hegseth is an inspired choice IMO. The guy is a real warfighter and one of his assignments was as civil-military operations officer, which means he had to deal with the hostile public in Iraq. He is well spoken and graduated from Princeton and Harvard, so he’s not stupid.
His lack of time in the Pentagon is a plus in my opinion. The organization is not that complex, but the loyalties and interrelationships of people who have worked together for years in the Pentagon make it difficult to implement change. The SES and GS-15 civilians who watch generals and SecDefs come and go often have conflicted loyalties. He will have to break down the civilian structure.
He will also have to restore adherence to the national command authority that Milley so damaged. There has to be a wave of retirements among the flag officers in the Pentagon.
Somebody like Hegseth who owes absolutely nothing to current Pentagon leaders is perfect for the job. Is Hegseth himself up to the job? We shall see, but he has the requisite qualities to be a wrecking ball, which is sorely needed to turn the military around.
Definitely want an outsider but you need someone without a learning curve to overcome who can hit the ground running on day one. It’s not that I think Hegseth couldn’t grow into the job but that I want someone who doesn’t need to rely/lean on his staff for guidance or to supply knowledge he lacks about the DoD bureaucracy.
Weird how I know who all his nominees are by watching Fox news. I see a pattern. I hope he has Emily Compagno as his Press Secretary. Articulate and smart as hell; also easy on the eyes.
By the time someone has enough experience to avoid a substantial learning curve as SecDef, (s)he is no longer an outsider.
You mentioned Tulsi Gabbard as a potential nominee, because she served on the House Armed Services committee. I don’t think knowledge gained from committee work makes someone all that familiar with Pentagon bureaucracy. Congress usually does not see the behind-the-scenes sausage making.
Don’t get me wrong; Tulsi would be good too, However, Pete’s books lay out a high-level vision for what he would try to achieve. Tulsi’s book is more about politics and therefore less relevant.
I meant for this to be reply to Commochief above.
Congress deals with all the BS excuses the DoD makes, particularly the members of the Armed Service Committee. Combine that knowledge and exposure to the DoD personalities with combat Veteran experience and one is ahead of the curve.
I can live with Hegseth but my #1 pick would have been COL Macgregor. This gentleman has been calling for massive reform at DoD since the late ’90s and his books and other published articles are what led to him being passed over for promotion to General Officer and shown the door. He literally wrote the book on reorganizing the Pentagon and refocusing the DoD and the DC establishment has been hating his ass for it for three decades.
Dang they are making some good looking Sec of Defense dudes
This is a DUDE
Very surprising. Trump has earned the right to make these choices as he wants, and he gets the benefit of any doubt due to his performance in overcoming all obstacles in the way.
His track record of appointments was poor last time, so a great campaign should not IMO get him a pass.
I would argue that his track record from 2016 will invite added scrutiny rather than a pass. I have mostly good thoughts about his picks so far, with a bit of skepticism about Noem.
COL Macgregor has impeccable credentials, but he was passed over for general over 20 years ago. His time has passed. The guy has to be pushing 80, and there is room for only one near octagenarian in the new Administration. I would like to see someone young and energetic in the position (but that’s just me).
Hegsheth should definitely use him as a consultant or advisor.
As for Tulsi, you are of course theoretically correct. But I do not recall her pushing back against the Pentagon, while she was on HASC. Am I forgetting something?.
Her primary interest as I recall was to oppose foreign wars, but that has little to do with transforming the military.
She was anti tranny before it was.cool. Don’t underestimate how much the forever war neocons and DC establishment use the spectre of ___Threat Nation/Group to juice more defense spending boondoggles and avoid/delay accountability and audit the books. It’s always the same refrain ‘hey, we got a war here, we don’t got time for audits right now, we’ll do it after’…..Except there is no ‘after’ b/c they move on to the next crisis, next proxy war, next conflict. No time is allotted for sober and critical analysis of performance. The same Generals who effed up keep their jobs and perpetuate the system with their nearly hand picked replacements. (That ain’t hyperbole, Gen Officers have to sign off on COL to be promoted to Gen Officer rank and if you’ve PO the brass with realistic/honest opinions/papers …you can forget about becoming a General.
If Trump can be POTUS then COL Macgregor can run DoD, heck make Hegseth his primary deputy. Don’t give me any selective BS about age being a problem for X but not Y when both X and Y are still fully on top of their game.
My recollection is that Tulsi did not become anti-tranny until after she left Congress. I do not recall her introducing legislation to eliminate wokeness in the military. She went along with it when she was in power, but made a lot of noise about it after she was out. This does not really bode well for her as a change agent. I guess we will see, since she was nominated as the DNI.
Trust me when I say that I know something about the vagaries of promotion from O6 to O7. I have seen COL Macgregor many times on Fox News and elsewhere. He cannot change hearts and minds as well as an articulate, energetic leader like Hegseth. Both men can bring a sledge hammer to the problem, but Hegseth can also deliver charm. That’s the difference.
What!?!?!?!!?
Where’s Jeff Sessions?
To those who are fixated on “experience” as it’s defined in DC, I might point out that Abe Lincoln had precious little of it, but he did a pretty good job as I recall.
Not to mention that previous government experience probably means you’re corrupt piece of garbage
It’s a bit of a wild card pic but I don’t see any reason to object out right. One advantage is it might be a lot harder to dig up dirt on the guy
Given what Milley did to Trump, an outsider is exactly what is called for.
I think Hegseth will be good on beating back woke, warrior culture, recruiting from what I have heard.
It’s cleaning the Augean stables, though, and anyone would be challenged with this role. He will need some outstanding support to be successful.
One person cannot make enough of a difference on his own, but if he changes the culture that will set a foundation
Beyond the woke failures and resistance from within, the military also has tremendous deficits in procurement, efficiency, and strategy vs where they should be and against a very capable foe in China (one with weaknesses too but not hobbled by lack of clarity on mission or strategic wiles or deep penetration of our own government).
He will need to address that as well, and I think he will need support in this area as I have not seen him demonstrate as much here
(although let’s be honest anything is better than our current state led by Milleys and whatnot)
Definitely want an outsider but I think we need one who became an outsider by being ‘cast out’ of the
Pentagon insider club for raising up non Orthodox views and reforms… such as COL Douglas Macgregor. Someone like this who knows where the bodies are buried so to speak or like Tulsi Gabbard/Tom Cotton who are also combat Veterans with experience dealing with DC bureaucratic shenanigans/stonewalling.
There should be quite a few flag officers preparing their retirement papers due to their woke policies. Pete Hegseth was driven out of the military and wrote a book about how going woke is ruining the US military.
He’s picked to shake things up. Not just play Business as Usual
I had to laugh at Elizabeth Warren’s tweet saying that Trump selected a TV host to be SecDef.
You’d think that someone who attained her status through fraudulent means would have the sense to sit this one out but apparently not.
Liawatha should definitely sit this one out.
This is a great discussion you guys are very knowledgable.
One thing I’ll say is that if Pete somehow gets through and can get some strong support around him in this job — he could be set up as a truly dynamic conservative leader in the future.