Who Is Pete Hegseth? Fox News Host, Army Veteran Now Trump’s Pick For Secretary of Defence
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President-elect Donald Trump has named Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. He is also an author and a US military veteran.
Pete Hegseth has been chosen the Secretary of Defence (Photo: AFP)
Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army veteran, is all set to serve as the Secretary of Defence under President-elect Donald Trump, who hailed Hegseth as “tough, smart and a true believer in America First” in a social media post announcing the nomination.
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump wrote.
Hegseth’s name was not among those considered as likely picks for Trump’s defence secretary among Pentagon officials. In fact, his name hardly emerged in the run-up to the announcement, if at all.
However, soon after his name was announced, a defence official told CNN, “Everyone is simply shocked.”
Another Pentagon official who was following the potential picks for defence secretary learned about the possibility of Hegseth only in the hours before the nomination, CNN reported.
Donald Trump feuded with his first Defense Secretary, James Mattis, who resigned in protest after Trump announced an immediate withdrawal of US forces from Syria. Mark Esper, Trump’s other confirmed Defense Secretary, had openly warned about the threat of another Trump administration in the weeks leading up to the election.
WHO IS PETE HEGSETH?
Pete Hegseth is a military veteran and a popular conservative media personality with a large following of his own.
Having joined Fox News in 2014, 44-year-old Hegseth co-hosts Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend”, and serves as a host for Fox Nation.
Hegseth has also authored several books, many for the network’s publishing imprint, including “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” While announcing Hegseth’s nomination, Trump complimented that book, noting its “nine weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, including two weeks at number one”.
Hegseth has served in the military, although he lacks senior military or national security experience.
After graduating from Princeton University in 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry captain in the Army National Guard, serving overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at Guantanamo Bay, and was awarded two Bronze Star medals.
He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and also unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012. According to his Fox News bio, he has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government.
He lives with his wife and seven children in the southern US state of Tennessee.
TRUMP’S FONDNESS FOR PETE HEGSETH
Donald Trump made regular appearances on Pete’s show on Fox News, and that’s how the two developed a friendship.
As Trump formulated his first cabinet following his 2016 win, he reportedly considered Hegseth to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. He again considered Hegseth when Secretary David Shulkin faced criticism before his ouster in 2018.
In 2019, Hegseth urged Trump to pardon US service members who had been accused of war crimes. He advocated for the servicemen’s cases on his show and online, interviewing relatives on Fox News. He posted on social media that pardons from Trump “would be amazing”, and added hashtags with the names of those accused to reporting mentioning his private lobbying of the then-president.
The effort was successful, with Trump that year pardoning a former US Army commando set to stand trial in the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker, as well as a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire upon three Afghans, killing two. Trump also ordered a promotion for a decorated Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State captive in Iraq.
PETE HEGSETH’s ROLE IN DONALD TRUMP’s CABINET
As the Secretary of Defence, Hegseth would lead the Pentagon with burgeoning conflicts on multiple fronts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies, the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah, and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea.
While the Pentagon is considered a key job in any administration, defence secretary was a tumultuous post during Trump’s first term. Five men held the job during Trump’s four years.
Trump’s relationship with his civilian and military leaders during those years was fraught with tension, confusion and frustration, as they struggled to temper or even simply interpret presidential tweets and pronouncements that blindsided them with abrupt policy decisions they weren’t prepared to explain or defend.
Many of the generals who worked in his first administration — both on active duty and retired — have slammed him as unfit to serve in the Oval Office. He has condemned them in return.
