Pete Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s choice etcsecretary ddefense, she said she believes women should not serve in combat and wants to see the military purged of “woke” officers who support diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives.
Hegseth, 44, a Fox News anchor, has a long history of making eyebrow-raising comments, particularly when it comes to the military issues he would oversee if confirmed to join Trump’s second Cabinet and sixth in line for the presidency.
Hegseth has long maintained a close relationship with Trump. The pair is frequent appeared together in photos on social media and on Fox. Hegseth started at Fox News in 2014 as an on-air pundit and tried to host the weekend edition of the network’s flagship morning show, Fox & Friends.
Trump described Hegseth on Tuesday as “tough, smart, and a true believer in America.”
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Army will be Great Again and America will never back down,” he said.
Neither Fox News nor Trump’s transition team immediately responded to requests for comment about Hegsett’s on-air comments about the military. Hegseth was an Army National Guard infantry officer who served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantanamo, Cuba.
Hegseth has already hinted at how he wants to rebuild the Defense Department, the largest and oldest government agency in the United States. the budget is about 850 billion dollars. Speaking on The Shawn Ryan Show podcast last week, Hegseth said that during Trump’s second term, “Any general, general, admiral, whatever, involved in any of the DEI, woke up… must go.”
His first order of business, he said, would be to fire Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who he said was pushing a “woke” agenda.
He also stated that female soldiers should not be allowed to fight on the front line.
“I’m right that women shouldn’t be in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the podcast. “It didn’t make us more effective, it didn’t make us more lethal, it made the fight more difficult.”
The Pentagon first opened all combat roles to women in 2015, a historic policy shift to reflect changing attitudes of gender-based barriers in the military. Women make up more than 17% of the military. According to the Ministry of Defenseand they have they proved themselves in trainingdistinguished as fighter pilots in overseas battles and broken ground top roles throughout the armed forces.
Pentagon officials do not expect the next administration to change policy and restrict women from serving in combat, but they are concerned that it could negatively affect women who want to serve or are currently in uniform.
“At a time when recruiting continues to be difficult, it will have a chilling effect on women who want to join,” said one defense official, in part because “they will see that the highest-ranking civilian in the Pentagon doesn’t value their services.” “
Hegseth also proposed reworking the rules of war in the United States’ favor after Iran fired missiles at US forces stationed at air bases in Iraq in early 2020 in response to a Trump-authorized strike that killed top Iranian general Qassam Soleimani. The US military should be allowed to bomb Iranian historical sites.
“I am not interested in the cultural places of Iran,” he said in a speech. Two days later, he said, “If we’re going to fight to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, this regime, then we have to rewrite the rules that work for us,” adding, “I don’t want to. hit cultural sites on purpose, but if you use them to store your most dangerous weapons, that should also be on your target list.”
More to the point, Hegseth said on Ryan’s podcast last week that “the rules of war are for the winners.”
Hegseth also spoke about defending military personnel in controversial cases.
He He openly lobbied Trump In 2019, to pardon three US servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes. Among them was Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL platoon leader who was acquitted by a military jury in the 2017 killing of an insurgent in Iraq but convicted of a lesser charge.
“They are not war criminals; they are fighters,” Hegseth said on air that year about the men Trump hoped to pardon.
Trump overturned Gallagher’s military rank reduction. prompts fire Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer opposed the decision. Trump also pardoned two other people in separate cases related to the killing of Afghans during the war.
Hegseth recently defended Daniel Penn, a Marine veteran who was tried last year in the drowning death of a homeless black man in the New York subway. Send to X That Penny is an “American hero” and that “the awakened mob is trying to destroy her.”
Early in his career at Fox, Hegseth went viral for an on-air incident in 2015 in which he overshot and hit a target. A West Point drummer was hit in the arm with an ax. The man, Master Sgt. Geoffrey Prospery, He sued Hegseth. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the case had been dismissed in 2019, and a statement from Prosperi’s attorney said, “The parties have settled the matter and will not be commenting further.” Prosperie could not be reached for comment.
Hegseth is one of Trump’s many Cabinet-level picks, including longtime allies. Rep. Matt GaetzR-Fla., to be attorney general, Senator Marco Rubio Florida Secretary of State Tulsi Gabbard, a former House Democrat, will become director of national intelligence.
At least one of Hegseth’s cable news colleagues expressed some skepticism about his choice.
“From silly food interviews on Weekend Fox and Friends to Secretary of Defense? I never thought I’d be confused by any choice after the election, but who nominated Pete Hegsett for this incredibly important role? Yes, he’s a veteran… and? Former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson said at X on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, Hegseth’s colleagues at Fox News praised him.
“You don’t realize how qualified he is until you actually look at his resume,” the host said Brian Kilmeade said Wednesday morning.
A seasoned veteran, Hegseth could face a tough approval process. Republicans will form a slim crowd In the Senate and his comments and relative unknown status there may be obstacles.
“TOP?” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., he said on Capitol Hill When asked about Trump’s selection of Hegseth on Tuesday evening. “I don’t know Pete. I just don’t know anything about him.”
Still, even skeptical Republican senators seem open to confirming it.
“I’m not going to be negative right now because I want to learn more about his background, you know, and his approach to these issues, so he’s going to go through the regular process,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, RS .D., told reporters on Tuesday.