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President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary Pete Hegseth could be replaced amid concerns about the former Fox News host’s past, according to reports.
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Sources close to the matter told the Wall Street Journal, CNN and the Associated Press that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was a possible replacement. A deluge of allegations against Hegseth have resurfaced, including mistreatment of women, sexual assault and drinking.
There are six senators who were “potentially opposed to his nomination,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Trump has not publicly pulled back support and neither have any Republican senators, but “Trump allies increasingly think Hegseth might not survive further scrutiny,” sources said, per the Wall Street Journal.
The Left ‘are afraid of (Donald Trump) — and me,’ Pete Hegseth says
Hegseth, however, said he is not backing down in a post on X.
“I’m doing this for the war fighters, not the warmongers,” he wrote, sharing a photo of himself, alongside other soldiers, when he was part of the Army National Guard.
“The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of (Donald Trump) — and me.”
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DeSantis — who ran against Trump at the outset of the 2024 presidential election — served as a lawyer for the Navy at the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He was later deployed to Iraq.
He’s a “well-known conservative with a service record who shares Trump’s — and Hegseth’s — view on culling what they see as ‘woke’ policies in the military,” the Wall Street Journal reported. One source said that Trump brought up DeSantis “in casual conversations with guests at Mar-a-Lago.”
Other picks who are reportedly being considered to run the Pentagon, sources told the publication, are Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development Elbridge Colby and Senator Joni Ernst, who served in the military for 23 years.
Despite the rumours that Hegseth may not make it through questioning from senators, he said that he spoke to Trump on Wednesday morning. The president-elect told him to keep “fighting,” Hegseth said, CNN reported.
He is set to have a “closed-door meeting” with the Republican Study Committee on Wednesday, per CNN.
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