‘The least qualified nominee in American history’: Why Trump picked Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense
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Veterans groups and service members are warning against Trump’s ‘dangerous’ appointment to the Pentagon, as the president-elect rewards loyalists dedicated to his agenda, Alex Woodward reports. The second in command to the nation’s military could end up being a Fox News pundit who wants to launch a “frontal assault” against top brass, kick women out of combat, and implement Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda for the world’s third-largest standing fighting force.
![[Pete Hegseth arrives at Trump Tower in Manhattan in 2016]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/11/14/01/1c03022992ca4eb3b970659844e91084.jpg)
The president-elect has nominated Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defense, overseeing a budget of roughly $850 billion and roughly 3 million service members and personnel serving in the nation’s oldest-running agency while the US is embroiled in global conflicts in a period of escalating tensions.
![[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, left, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attend a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/11/14/01/8e2f29c8d7914a39bdcfa0f7a8660ed8.jpg)
The office was created in the aftermath of the Second World War to centralize governance of the newly renamed Department of War and the various branches of the military. Most of the more than 30 secretaries in the department’s history have some combination of military records, history in elected office and roles within national defense programs — a mix of decorated veterans, Pentagon officials, scientists and long-serving bureaucrats.
“The best thing one could say” about Hegseth, according to Veterans for Responsible Leadership founder Dan Barkhuff, is that he is “wholly unqualified to lead the [Department of Defense] on merit.”. Veterans advocacy groups are sounding alarms. Republicans in Congress are scratching their heads. Military service members on Reddit’s r/Military are dragging his “beyond stupid” nomination. “The greatest military machine in the history of mankind to be under the thumb of a TV show host,” one user wrote.
