President-elect Donald Trump nominates television host Pete Hegseth, an army veteran who has criticized “woke” policies within the US armed forces, as secretary of defense. He stated this on Tuesday.
The 44-year-old Hegseth is one of the presenters of the program Fox & Friends Weekend of Fox News Channel and is a friend of Trump, a regular guest on the show. If confirmed by the Senate, he will head the Pentagon against the backdrop of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Hegseth’s nomination is in line with a campaign promise by Trump to rid the American armed forces of generals who, in his view, implement progressive policies regarding diversity, which make conservatives shudder. Trump said on Fox News in June that he wanted to fire generals he considers “woke” – it may be up to Hegseth to implement that policy.
Host Pete Hegseth of ‘Fox & Friends’ interviews President Donald Trump at the White House, April 2017. Photo Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Hegseth, an ex-National Guard soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, said he left the army in 2021 because he was seen as an extremist and the army no longer wanted him. “The feeling was mutual – I didn’t want this army anymore either,” he wrote in his book The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Freewhich came out earlier this year.
Trump had a difficult relationship with Defense during his first term. Some of the generals and defense secretaries during his presidency have strongly criticized him and called on American voters not to re-elect him as president. Hegseth’s nomination may indicate that Trump wants a defense secretary who is more loyal to him.
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