President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and military veteran, as his pick for defense secretary.
In a statement, Trump described Hegseth as “tough, smart and a true advocate of 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,” Trump said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., applauded Trump’s selection, calling Hegseth a “great choice.”
“Pete brings a lot to the table. He has experience and I think he will be reformist in the areas that need reform. So I’m excited about the choice,” Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill, without explaining which programs he thinks should be changed.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he was blindsided by Trump’s announcement.
“I have to admit that I didn’t know who Pete Hegseth was until about 20 minutes ago,” Smith told reporters.
“He doesn’t really seem to have a detailed background [Department of Defense] policy. To the extent he’s worked on that stuff, it’s been about veterans policy, not DoD issues. So the lack of experience is concerning,” said Smith.
“Now I haven’t heard what his plans are, so we’ll see what his plans are,” he added. “But it was surprising and concerning, just given the lack of experience. You know, the Pentagon, the largest bureaucracy in the world. It’s hard to run, so I think it’s going to be a challenge.”
During an interview on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast released last week, Hegseth denounced what he called diversity, equality and inclusion “woke s—” in the military, and outlined a plan to “correct this of course ‘.
“Well, first of all, you have to fire. You have to fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and of course you’re going to appoint a new Secretary of Defense. But every general who was involved – general, admiral, whatever that was – in any of the DEI woke events needs to go,” Hegseth said.
During his first administration, Trump nominated James Mattis and later Mark Esper to lead the Defense Department.
Mattis resigned in December 2018, suggesting in a resignation letter that he and Trump differed in their views on “treating our allies with respect” and on being “clear” about U.S. adversaries and competitors.
Trump fired Esper in 2020 after disagreements over issues including the use of active-duty troops to quell nationwide racial justice protests that year following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Amid a flurry of choices for his second administration, Trump said earlier Tuesday he would nominate former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as director of the CIA.
On Monday, he named Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as his pick for U.N. ambassador and said he would nominate Lee Zeldin, a former House Republican from New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
On Sunday, he called immigration hardliner Tom Homan his “border czar.”
Trump’s first major administration announcement came last week, when he said Susie Wiles, his campaign manager, would become White House chief of staff.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
