Name: Who Is Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Controversial Pick for Secretary of Defense?
Uploaded: 2024-11-16T01:30:00Z
Duration: 4 min 41 s
Description: President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Fox News host and combat veteran Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, an unconventional pick to oversee the Pentagon’s more than three million employees and billions of dollars budget.

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President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Fox News host and combat veteran Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, an unconventional pick to oversee the Pentagon’s more than three million employees and billions of dollars budget. Photo Illustration: Ryan Trefes

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President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Fox News host and combat veteran Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, an unconventional pick to oversee the Pentagon’s more than three million employees and billions of dollars budget.

Who Is Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Controversial Pick for Secretary of Defense?

Narrator: Donald Trump has chosen Pete Hegseth, a combat veteran and former Fox News host, as his next Secretary of Defense.

Well, it's definitely controversial. It's was very out of the blue. Pete Hegseth is going to be a disruptor and he's going to come in and go to war with the Pentagon culture and the Pentagon system.

And if the military goes woke, then it's less equipped to fight the wars it needs to fight.

I would say what he's best known for is being a right wing firebrand who's been an outspoken supporter of the Trump and the MAGA movements.

I'm surprised they're not handing ballots to the illegals when they cross the border.

Speaker: Yep.

I mean, that would be, that would just make it a lot more efficient based on their viewpoint.

Narrator: Here's what Trump's unorthodox pick means for the federal government's largest department.

A lot of SecDefs have had experience as top leaders in the military. Secretary Austin, the current defense secretary, he was a four star general. Previous SecDefs, have had experience in civilian leadership in the building, so that kind of thing. Some kind of leadership role in national security in the federal government door in the military. Pete Hegseth was an infant infantry officer in the Army National Guard. He deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan and served in Guantanamo Bay and he retired at the rank of major.

Narrator: After serving in combat zones. Hegseth joined Fox News in 2014 and rose the ranks to on air host. The 44-year-old Minnesota native is known for criticizing the military's current culture.

He said point blank that he would fire any generals that he considers too woke, meaning too involved in diversity and inclusion programs. Our strength is not in our diversity, but in our unity. He specifically named General CQ Brown, who's the chairman of the Joint Chief. He's the only the second Black man ever to be named to that role. He's also said he is against women in combat.

I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated

Narrator: Following Trump's nominations, Some of Hegseth's past viral moments resurfaced.

I don't think I've washed my hands for 10 years. Really. I don't really wash my hands ever.

Someone help me.

Narrator: Including the time Hegseth accidentally hit a drummer with an ax during a live broadcast on Fox and Friends in June, 2015.

During the first Trump administration, Hegseth was a big advocate for MAGA policies. He used his show and his social media platform to promote a lot of Trump's policies. He advocated for Trump to pardon soldiers who had been accused of war crimes.

Then they go kill the enemy the way someone doesn't like, and then we put 'em in jail or we throw the book at them.

Trump has always been very friendly with him and thinks very highly of him. So I think they have a good relationship. They became friends and that's probably part of the reason he got the job. He's likely to not oppose any of Trump's efforts to do things like send troops to the southern border or to quell protests in American cities.

Narrator: Hegseth's nomination has come under fire for both his views and his lack of high level administrative experience.

Certainly there are Democratic lawmakers that have spoken out saying that he's unqualified for the job. He's never held any government leadership position. They would need several Republicans to defect and vote against him in order to take his nomination. And it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. It seems like everyone's going to fall in line.

Narrator: Trump appears to be sending a clear message by appointing Hegseth to lead the military.

He's signaling that this person will come in and be reformer of the culture of the Pentagon. We also broke the news a couple days ago that the Trump transition team is considering an executive order that would create a outside board that would look at firing three and four star generals. So I think he's also going to probably create a culture of fear where three and four star generals are worried about saying the wrong thing or offending the wrong person and will have to try not to get fired by this outside board. So I think it sends a chilling effect for sure. I think also the focus on internal Pentagon issues takes focus away from focus on issues abroad, like what's going on in Israel, what's going on in Ukraine. So I think it potentially could take the focus away from those external battles to focus on internal ones.

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