The US President-elect Donald Trump is considering nominating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Secretary of Defense. Now the veteran and former Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth is formally applying for this position.
This is reported by the BBC, The Wall Street Journal and CBS News.
DeSantis ran in the 2024 Republican primary. Trump took a closer look at his candidacy after a joint visit with the governor to Florida on December 3.
Shortly before that, Hegseth met with Senate Republicans in the Capitol. He wanted to enlist their support, but faced suspicions of a sex crime, embezzlement of funds from veteransʼ charities, alcohol abuse, and more.
Hegseth is a veteran of the US Army, a National Guard officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He received his bachelorʼs degree from Princeton and his masterʼs degree from Harvard. His qualifications cause concern among Trumpʼs party members — the man has no political experience at all.
After Hegsethʼs nomination to the post, police documents emerged accusing the man of sexual assault in 2017. An unidentified woman said the then-Fox News anchor took her phone and locked the door to her hotel room during the Republican convention in California.
The police report includes interviews with the victim, a hotel employee, a nurse and a witness. Hegseth denies wrongdoing and claims the meeting was consensual. He was never formally charged or arrested.
According to the media, Hegseth has little chance of getting enough votes to approve his candidacy in the Senate. At least four Republican senators would have voted against him as of today, sources told CBS News.
Republicans are expected to have a 53-seat majority in the upper house of Congress. Therefore, the loss of four Republican votes and all Democratic votes is critical to Hegsethʼs nomination.
- Previously, Pete Hegseth attracted public attention with sharp statements. In particular, about the readiness to carry out a purge in the Pentagon. He "took aim" at Army Chief Mark Milleyʼs successor, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, asking if he would have gotten the job if he hadnʼt been black.
- The veteran sharply criticized Americaʼs European allies, calling them "obsolete, unarmed" and "powerless." Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in his opinion, looked like "Putinʼs give-me-my-shit war".
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