In choosing Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a military veteran and a popular conservative media personality with a large following of his own.
Hegseth, 44, has developed a close bond with Trump, who also reportedly considered him for a post in his first administration. Hegseth has lobbied Trump to release soldiers accused of war crimes.
Here are a few things you need to know about Hegseth.
He is a Fox News personality and author
Hegseth is co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor to the network for a decade. He developed a friendship with Trump through the president-elect’s regular appearances on the show. In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson complimented Hegseth’s military knowledge, saying his “insights and analysis, especially about the military, resonated deeply with our viewers.”
He has also written a number of books, several for the network’s publishing house, including “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” In announcing Hegseth’s nomination, Trump complimented that book, noting that it “spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, including two weeks at number one.”
He is a military veteran
Hegseth has served in the military, although he has no senior military or national security experience.
After graduating from Princeton University in 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry captain in the Army National Guard, where he served overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as at Guantanamo Bay.
He previously headed Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and also ran unsuccessfully for Senate in Minnesota in 2012. According to his biography on Fox News, he has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
When Trump was formulating his first Cabinet after his 2016 victory, he reportedly considered Hegseth to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. He thought of Hegseth again when Minister David Shulkin faced criticism before he was ousted in 2018.
He defended soldiers accused of war crimes
In 2019, Hegseth urged Trump to pardon U.S. service members accused of war crimes. He advocated for the military’s causes on his show and online, interviewing family members on Fox News. He posted on social media that a pardon from Trump “would be great,” adding hashtags with the names of the accused to reports mentioning his private lobbying of the then-president.
The effort was successful, with Trump that year pardoning a former US Army commando on trial for the murder of a suspected Afghan bomb maker, as well as a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for killing his men had ordered to shoot at three Afghans. two deaths. Trump also ordered the promotion of a decorated Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State prisoner in Iraq.
He would come to this job during a series of global crises
Hegseth would lead the Pentagon amid burgeoning conflicts on multiple fronts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, continued attacks in the Middle East by Iranian allies, the push for a ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, and escalating concerns about the growing alliance. between Russia and North Korea.
Although the Pentagon is considered a key position in any administration, the secretary of defense was a tumultuous position during Trump’s first term. Five men held the position during Trump’s four years.
Trump’s relationship with his civilian and military leaders during those years was fraught with tension, confusion and frustration, as they struggled to temper or even interpret presidential tweets and statements that blindsided them with abrupt policy decisions they were unwilling to make. to explain or defend.
Many of the generals who served during his first administration – both active duty and retired – declared him unfit to serve in the Oval Office. In turn, he condemned them.
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Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
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Meg Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
