President-elect Donald Trump has named Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and Fox News host, as his choice for secretary of defense and John Ratcliffe, a hawkish former House lawmaker, to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, placing loyalists in two key national security positions.
The selection of defense secretary continues Trump’s practice of turning away from civilians with high-level national security experience to run the Pentagon or to retired officers, which he tried early in his first term when he chose retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis to run the department.
“Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,” Trump said in a statement confirming his selection. In a separate statement, Trump called Ratcliffe a “warrior for Truth and Honesty” and credited him for exposing what Trump called “fake Russian collusion” accusations against his 2016 campaign.
If confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth would take over the federal government’s biggest department with a budget that last year reached $850 billion, overseeing a workforce of nearly three million civilian workers and military service members, many deployed around the world. He has never held a senior government post, an issue likely to be raised at least by Democrats ahead of a vote on his nomination.
Hegseth, 44, is a National Guard veteran from Minnesota who has been a commentator on Fox News for the past decade. He once led an advocacy group that sought to privatize healthcare provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, leading Trump to consider him as VA secretary during his first term.
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