Donald Trump’s pick of Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense will no doubt shake up the Pentagon say troops.
The heavily tattooed 44-year-old deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and won two Bronze Stars, then unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012 before joining Fox News.
Hegseth’s appointment came as a surprise to many since he’s a non-establishment pick with no previous government experience who will be leading the nation’s largest federal agency with a $800 billion budget.
But current and former service members tell DailyMail.com that a shake-up at the top of the Pentagon totem pole is necessary.
Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL who killed terrorist Osama bin Laden in 2011, told DailyMail.com that Hegseth is a ‘fantastic choice.’
And one main reason why is because he’s never been dragged into the D.C. political ‘swamp.’
‘He is a mid-level officer who has been to Afghanistan and Iraq on combat tours, worked with the National Guard in DC and played basketball at Princeton,’ said O’Neill.
‘He knows the soldiers and how a team works and really knows how to push himself. He is not part of the good-old-boy network and has never been part of the swamp.’
Other service members share the same view that Hegseth will bring a new perspective to the agency.
Current U.S. Navy Commander Robert A. Green Jr. said he’s ‘excited for the fresh approach’ that Hegseth will bring to the position.
‘The Joint Force deserves a decision maker who will prioritize constitutional principles over contractor profits,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘There is also a deep bench of recently retired conservative Admirals and Generals who are eager to support and advise. The future looks very bright for the US military under Pete Hegseth.’
An active duty fighter pilot said he’s most thrilled about Hegseth’s commitment to ‘shrinking the bureaucratic machine down to something much more manageable.’
The pilot says the ‘overwhelming and cumbersome bureaucracy’ makes his job difficult on a daily basis.
‘The Air Force and DoD at large has felt more like a DMV than a warfighting organization and that’s causing a lot of guys in the flying community to end up disillusioned and eager to get out,’ he told DailyMail.com.
He warned that he’s only cautiously optimistic because of Hegseth’s lack of government prowess.
‘I do wonder if he has the political savvy to navigate the labyrinth of the pentagon machine and tame it effectively,’ he continued.
Air Force veteran Jordan Karr told DailyMail.com that she was ‘shocked in a good way’ regarding Hegseth’s nomination.
Another retried Air Force Col. John McAfee said that he’s hopeful Hegseth will ‘create a way’ to bring back religious service members who were terminated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
The mandate enacted in August 2021 led to the forced firing of over 8,000 service members who refused the shot on religious or medical grounds.
But for Pentagon career employees, Hegseth’s announcement came as quite a shock.
One defense official told DailyMail.com that it was ‘like a morgue’ inside the Pentagon after Trump’s announcement.
They said the career staff were ‘apoplectic’ after hearing Hegseth, who has no government or management experience, would be taking over administration of the largest joint fighting forces in the world.
‘The libs seemed so depressed,’ according to a message obtained by DailyMail.com.
And many are especially concerned about Trump’s reported plan to create a ‘warrior board’ of retired ex-military personnel to weed out ‘woke generals’ deemed unfit for leadership.
A source within the department says that ever since the announcement, the mood has been ‘dark’ among employees.
‘No one has been joking,’ the insider told DailyMail.com. There are also worries that the U.S. could lose its soft power and trust of allies.
But that seems to be the exact goal of Trump with his defense shake-up and incoming wave of firings.
And another official says change is ‘welcome’ and that employees want a defense secretary that will ‘engage with staff more’ after current Sec. Lloyd Austin’s distance.
‘No one really knows his hobbies or what he likes to do,’ the official says about Austin. ‘His staff has always kept him hidden and he doesn’t seem to have much interest in pretending that he is interested in staff.’
Hegseth could change that up in the department and be more accessible to employees – a perk in the eyes of many.
A Pentagon official told DailyMail.com that there’s some ‘disappointment’ that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr., who replaced Gen. Mark Milley, will be the main target of the warrior board purge.
Employees feel he’s a ‘good guy that keeps his head down and doesn’t make news,’ they explained.
The main issue that Trump has with Brown is his work to expand the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) effort within the agency.
But the official said he was ‘kind of forced’ into DEI after the death of George Floyd.
‘There was some hope at first that Trump might keep Brown, which would be viewed as positive in the building, but that is looking bleak now.’
There are career officials who are welcoming Trump’s warrior board because some Milley loyalists are still around.
But it’s a ‘mixed bag of emotions’ in the department because now some who will be fired are ‘scrambling’ to find new job options.
‘Then again, there was a general understanding that because the Biden and Harris teams didn’t seem to like each other, that she would have done a massive sweep as well to put in people she viewed as loyal to her.’
Hegseth’s appointment comes as Trump has made other shock nominations including former Democratic congresswoman and Tulsi Gabbard for the director of national intelligence and embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
In a flurry of announcements, Trump said he had chosen former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel and his longtime friend Steven Witkoff to be a special envoy to the Middle East.
Trump also said he would nominate South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to run the Department of Homeland Security and named Bill McGinley, his Cabinet secretary in his first administration, as his White House counsel.
‘With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,’ Trump said in the statement announcing Hegseth.
‘Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our `Peace through Strength´ policy.’
‘Pete Hegseth has been an exceptional host on FOX & Friends and FOX Nation and a best-selling author for FOX News Books for nearly a decade,’ a spokesperson for Fox News Media told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘His insights and analysis especially about the military resonated deeply with our viewers and made the program the major success that it is today. We are extremely proud of his work at FOX News Media and wish him the best of luck in Washington.’
Trump is rolling out a steady stream of appointees and nominees for his upcoming administration, working thus far at a faster pace and without as much drama as his first transition following his 2016 victory.
Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel´s ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show.
He is also the author of ‘The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.’
The book, according to its promo, combines ‘his own war experiences, tales of outrage, and an incisive look at how the chain of command got so kinked,’ and bills itself as ‘the key to saving our warriors – and winning future wars.’
While the Pentagon is considered a key coveted post in any administration, the defense secretary was a tumultuous post during Trump´s first term.
Five men held the job during his four years only to resign, be fired or serve briefly as a stopgap. Just two of them were actually confirmed by the Senate.
Trump’s relationship with his civilian and military leaders during those years was fraught with tension, confusion and frustration, as they struggled to temper or even simply interpret presidential tweets and pronouncements that blindsided them with abrupt policy decisions they weren´t prepared to explain or defend.
Many of the generals who worked in his first administration – both on active duty and retired – have slammed him as unfit to serve in the Oval Office and he has condemned them in return.
Hegseth was an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and served overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises – ranging from Russia´s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea.
On a recent appearance on Fox News, he made it clear that he felt Joe Biden’s White House – run by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin – was run by ‘pro-Palestinian millennials.’
‘What Israel is about to do is bring Hell down on Hamas. Israel is about to do real war. Israel will be stacking bodies because Netanyahu isn’t messing around,’ he said.
Hegseth has ‘an excellent background as a junior officer but does not have the senior national security experience that secretaries need,’ said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
‘I think Trump was tired of fighting with his secretaries of defense and picked one who would be loyal to him.’ Cancian said the lack of experience might make it more difficult for Hegseth to get through Senate confirmation.