Dem
47
GOP
53
Last year's "Word of the Year" was "authentic". If we had to pick the word of the year for this year, we'd go with "weird." Among other things, having a campaign theme be about Haitians eating cats and dogs in Ohio was a good start on the weirdness. Donald Trump nominating a Fox News host as Secretary of Defense because Trump thinks he looks like a Secretary of Defense certainly carries the ball forward. To say that this pick came out of left field might qualify as Understatement of the Year, if Merriam-Webster had such a category. The reaction of many officials is, roughly: We are not amused.
Politico's headline for its story about Secretary-nominate Pete Hegseth is "Who the f--k is this guy?" The subhead is: "'Hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history,' one veterans' advocate said." The position is certainly one of the top four cabinet posts, along with Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney General, and is normally held by someone with serious military or defense experience. The most recent five secretaries of defense who were confirmed by the Senate (i.e., excluding acting secretaries) are:
| Secretary | Appointed by | Date started | Background |
| Lloyd Austin | Joe Biden | Jan. 22, 2021 | Four-star Army general |
| Mark Esper | Donald Trump | July 23, 2019 | West Point grad; fought with the "Screaming Eagles" in Gulf War; Secretary of the Army |
| Jim Mattis | Donald Trump | July 20, 2017 | Four-star Marine Corps general |
| Ash Carter | Barack Obama | Feb. 17, 2015 | Prof. of Int'l affairs at Harvard; Ass't. Secretary of Defense; Undersecretary of Defense |
| Chuck Hagel | Barack Obama | Feb. 27, 2013 | Veteran; Businessman; Two-term senator on Foreign Relations and Intel. committees |
Hegseth's background is that he was in the Minnesota National Guard, where he was a platoon leader at Guantanamo Bay, and later in Iraq and Afghanistan. He retired as a captain. He then led a conservative advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers before running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, losing, and getting a Fox News gig as a consolation prize.
Many people in the defense world are stunned by the pick and believe he was chosen largely due to his political views, which include getting rid of D.E.I. programs in the military, getting women out of combat roles in the armed forces, and pardoning soldiers accused of war crimes. Hegseth recently said that while white men and minority men can perform equally, the same isn't true of women. After all, it takes great physical strength to fly an attack drone, pilot an F-16, or command a destroyer.
Hegseth also foresees a purge at the Pentagon. He recently said: "First of all, you've got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Any general that was involved, any general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the D.E.I./woke s**t has got to go."
The ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith (D-WA), said of Hegseth: "There is reason for concern that this is not a person who is a serious enough policymaker, serious enough policy implementer, to do a successful job." One senior military officer, who spoke on background, said Hegseth's selection "is raising concerns about whether he has the practical experience to manage a large department with an enormous budget." The DoD has an annual budget of over $800 billion, 1.3 million active-duty troops, and another 1.4 million in the National Guard, Reserves, and civilian employees. Hegseth has never ever even run a lemonade stand. When Trump picked Rex Tillerson as secretary of state last time, there was some grumbling, but at least Tillerson had run ExxonMobil, a massive worldwide corporation with operations in 60 countries, and he personally knew the leader of every country in the world that had substantial oil in the ground. Hegseth pales in comparison to Tillerson and also to all the previously confirmed secretaries of defense.
Of course, what Trump values most is loyalty. What he does not want is anything resembling the last days of the Richard Nixon administration, when then-Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger (who had previously served on the Atomic Energy Commission and as Director of the CIA) told top Pentagon brass that if Nixon wanted to launch nuclear missiles, they should ignore the order and call him. Trump wants someone who will follow his orders no matter what they are, legal or not.
Veterans' groups are already starting to lobby to defeat Hegseth's confirmation. So are lobbyists. It is virtually certain that no Democratic senator will vote to confirm him, so it would take four Republican senators to torpedo his confirmation. Many senators actually care about the military and might refuse to confirm him. While seven members of the new Senate are veterans, the only Republican among them is Sen.-elect Tim Sheehy (R-MT). Hegseth's confirmation hearing should be interesting, to say the least. The confirmation hearings of Gaetz, Gabbard, and Hegseth will be a three-ring circus. (V)