Trump defence pick surprises Washington, here’s why

Pete Hegseth has spent the past eight years on the couch of a Fox News morning show defending President-elect Donald Trump and advocating for a conservative cultural shift in the US military, and he could soon be directing that agenda from behind the top desk at the Pentagon.

The Republican president-elect announced on Wednesday that Hegseth, a television host and veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was his nominee for defence secretary – a role typically filled by senior civil servants, experienced politicians and high-level executives.

While Hegseth has little of the traditional experience expected for such an important cabinet position – he would be the second-youngest person to serve in the office – he could aim to transform the Department of Defense if confirmed by the Senate.

Just last week, Hegseth said on a podcast that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff – the US’s top military leader – should be fired, along with any “general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] woke [expletive]”.

He also said that women should not serve in combat roles because he argued it had not made the military “more effective” or “more lethal”.

“Over human history, men in those positions are more capable,” he said.

He has also reportedly called for the Defence Department to be renamed the War Department and for a 10-year ban on generals working as defence contractors after leaving the military.

Those views have earned Hegseth many conservative fans, particularly those close to the president-elect. But some also question whether he is capable of running an agency that is considered one of the world’s largest bureaucracies, with a budget of nearly $900bn (£708bn).

Former Pentagon officials stressed that this role is one of the most critical appointments that the president could make, as the office-holder guides national security decisions and oversees the 2.9 million civilians and military service members who work for the Defence Department across the world.

“I’ve thought before that it was a harder job than the presidency,” Lincoln Bloomfield, who served in the Pentagon under Presidents George W Bush and Ronald Reagan, told the BBC.

“Hegseth’s not an old guy. He’s in his prime, so he has all the energy he needs,” added Bloomfield, who noted that the television host was well-educated and a combat veteran.

“But the question is how much does experience help lead to finding solutions? This is a job where every morning there are at least a dozen kinds of fires burning.”

It is unclear how Hegseth will fare during his confirmation process in the Senate, when he is likely to faces hours of grilling in hearings.

Some officials anticipated a challenging path through the Senate given his short CV that does not include much work on national security or foreign policy issues.

“This is a job that will involve thousands of hours of advising the president and how, when and under what circumstances to use military force,” Mara Karlin, a former senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration, said. “It will involve figuring out how to spend trillions of taxpayer dollars and the care of millions of members of the US military and civilians and their families.”

Some lawmakers in Washington DC appeared initially perplexed by Hegseth’s appointment to oversee one of the most complex bureaucracies in the world.

“I confess I didn’t know who he was until 20 minutes ago,” Representative Adam Smith, who serves as the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Wednesday. “And he certainly doesn’t seem to have any background whatsoever in (Department of Defence) policy.”

Other lawmakers were more blunt.

“Who?” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy told NBC News when asked about the appointment. “I don’t know Pete. I just don’t know anything about him.”

A co-host of the Fox & Friends weekend show for eight years, Hegseth was reportedly considered for a post during Trump’s first administration. But several former military and Pentagon officials said that Hegseth was not a known quantity in the Washington defence community.

“There are different worlds that past secretaries have come from – political people, technocrats, some from Congress – but traditionally they have a pretty decent level of experience with defence, national security issues and foreign policy,” Ms Karlin said.

The Princeton and Harvard graduate served as an infantry platoon leader in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He later deployed to Afghanistan as a counterinsurgency instructor in Kabul.

Many pointed to Hegseth’s military experience as a potential aid if he were to be confirmed.

“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,” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice.

Others, meanwhile, raised issue with Hegseth’s close ties to the president-elect.

John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser, told the BBC that the post of defence secretary should never be a “loyalty appointment”.

The person in the position should be willing to provide honest advice, Bolton said, even if it is unpopular.

“The question is: Will he be a yes man to Donald Trump or will he behave professionally and with courage the way he did when he was in uniform?” added Bolton, who has grown critical of the president-elect.

Hegseth has limited experience in politics beyond an unsuccessful run in 2012 for the Republican Senate nomination in Minnesota. Since then, he has largely turned to conservative activism and punditry.

He has advocated for privatising the US government’s agency that aids veterans, but his greatest political success in Washington was during Trump’s first term when he convinced the then-president to pardon several US service members accused of war crimes.

The two Army officers that Trump pardoned included one accused of killing a suspected Afghan bombmaker and another who was convicted of murder for directing men to fire upon three Afghans.

Still, Hegseth’s appointment to lead the Pentagon marks a departure from previous Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

Leon Panetta, who served under former President Barack Obama, was a former CIA director and White House Chief of Staff. Robert Gates, who was appointed by President George W Bush and Obama, worked for the CIA for 27 years.

During his first term, Trump himself turned to those with more military and national security experience than Hegseth, such as Secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper – who both served for decades in the military and were well known in Washington’s defence community.

President Joe Biden chose to appoint a retired four-star general, Secretary Lloyd Austin, who served as the commander of US Central Command and faced some criticism from lawmakers for not informing the White House about undergoing medical procedures while in office.

Given the experience of past secretaries, many were quick to argue that Hegseth lacked the necessary credentials.

“A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense,” said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who leads the Senate military personnel panel. She urged her fellow senators not to confirm him.

Others, however, rushed to Hegseth’s defence.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the conservative anchor was a “tireless advocate for America’s soldiers and veterans”.

“[H]e brings a fresh perspective to a Pentagon that has lost sight of its mission under Joe Biden. Pete is dedicated to ensuring that our military is focused on lethality and readiness, not woke ideology,” the speaker said.