Donald Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon has brought a backlash in Washington military circles as officials decry a “crazy” move to appoint a “bomb thrower” lacking the clout needed to lead the world’s most powerful defence department.
Trump nominated Hegseth, a Fox News host known for his attacks on “wokeness”, on Tuesday — one of several controversial national security picks by the president-elect in a rapid-fire 24 hours of cabinet nominations that sparked scorn from opponents and alarm from US allies.
Hegseth’s critics described him as unprepared for a pivotal job during a period of global conflict — and a threat to the stability of the US defence establishment. The TV host, who also served in the US military, has proposed firing top military leaders including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“He is unqualified, and he is the most overtly and extreme political nominee we’ve ever seen. This is a bomb thrower,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Independent Veterans of America, which helps politically independent veterans run for office.
Rieckhoff said the nomination, coming just a week after Trump’s Republican party won the White House and both houses of Congress, showed the president-elect was past caring about the reaction to his radical agenda for the country.
Trump was “pressing a political mandate in a way we have never seen in American history”, Rieckhoff said.
Even before Hegseth’s nomination, Pentagon officials had grown edgy about Trump’s campaign promises to fire “woke generals” and eliminate diversity programmes in the military.
In private, many seethed at the Hegseth news.
The Fox News presenter’s nomination was “crazy”, said one senior defence professional — and baffling even to some Republicans who had been reassured by Trump’s pick of Mike Waltz to be his national security adviser and Marco Rubio as his nominee for secretary of state.
Trump’s critics saw it as more evidence of the president-elect’s volatility.
“Trump picking Pete Hegseth is the most hilariously predictably stupid thing,” said Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman.
Hegseth’s possible elevation has already drawn criticism from US allies, amid concerns that the Trump ally’s positions on Israel, Ukraine or Taiwan are not fully known or consistent.
Trump said Hegseth was “tough, smart and a true believer in America first”, another sign that the president-elect was making loyalty a key requirement of his cabinet appointments.
But former officials warned that Hegseth’s intention to remove top generals, or have Trump fire CQ Brown — who was the first African American to lead a branch of the US Armed Forces — or order the military to take part in mass deportations could spark a significant crisis between service members and the political leadership.
“You’re looking at a potential crisis in civil-military relations here,” said Eric Edelman, vice-chair of the congressionally mandated Commission on National Defense Strategy and a senior Pentagon official during the George W Bush administration.
Hegseth has been a harsh critic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, blaming them for the armed services’ failure to enlist more people, particularly white men.
Military recruiters have connected a drop in white male recruits to growing obesity and poor funding of education, among other factors.
But the DEI issue points to an area of potential conflict if Hegseth takes the helm.
“Any general that was involved . . . in any of the DEI, woke shit, has got to go . . . you have to re-establish that trust by putting in no-nonsense war fighters in those positions who aren’t going to cater to the socially correct garbage,” he said in a podcast interview with Shawn Ryan.
Hegseth must win a majority of votes in the Senate to be confirmed, which could be a challenge even though Republicans hold a 53-seat advantage in the chamber. Some senators appeared uncertain.
“I don’t know anything about him,” said Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana on Wednesday.
Asked about Hegseth’s reputation on Capitol Hill, a senior Republican national security adviser replied: “Who? . . . He wasn’t on the radar until yesterday.”
But none of the party’s members have said they would vote against him. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday he had no concerns with Hegseth, telling CNN he was “delighted” at his nomination.
The Fox News star’s biggest challenge could be convincing senators — or military leaders — that he is credible as a Pentagon chief, with the managerial chops to lead the nation’s largest bureaucracy or connect with allies and partners.
“I see no evidence that this person has relationships whatsoever with our overseas partners,” Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters. “How is he going to do when working on the various coalitions we have?”
Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo and Alex Rogers
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