Hegseth heads to Pentagon with plans to upend it

The Senate on Friday confirmed Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, a triumphant moment for the former Fox News host who overcame allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and inexperience to attain one of the country’s most crucial positions.

Republicans largely rebuffed those accusations and approved Hegseth with the help of Vice President JD Vance, who broke a rare 50-50 tie, in the first big nomination fight for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Hegseth’s confirmation could smooth the way for other controversial Trump administration picks.

He will enter the Pentagon with a stated desire — and a mandate from the president — to upend traditional practices, from the role of top generals to where U.S. forces are stationed overseas.

The new Pentagon leader embodies Trump’s grievances, particularly about the spread of diversity programs in the military. He insists they have distracted from the force’s core mission of keeping the country safe.

Hegseth will likely spend his first days at the Pentagon addressing Trump’s push to use the military for deportations, assessing global troop deployments, eliminating diversity programs and determining which top military officers will stay in their jobs.

The Defense Department is bracing for change.

“He came across in his hearing like a college junior excited about all the new concepts he learned in class,” said one defense official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about their new boss. “People get that ASEAN isn’t the only acronym he doesn’t know."

Hegseth, already an unconventional pick for the Pentagon job, was dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct — including a 2017 sexual assault accusation that he denies but for which he paid a financial settlement to his accuser. And just days before the vote, senators received an affidavit from Hegseth's former sister-in-law alleging that he abused his second wife and regularly abused alcohol. Hegseth has denied all wrongdoing.

All Democrats opposed Hegseth. Three Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and, notably, former GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — voted against him.

No GOP defection is more surprising than McConnell. The former leader was the architect of many Republican legislative victories during Trump’s first term, including the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh amid sexual assault allegations.

The Kentucky Republican, a Reaganite defense hawk who now chairs the panel that controls the Pentagon budget, has set himself up as a counterweight to Trump on foreign policy. He’s attacked the more isolationist Trump-aligned wing of the GOP and recently criticized Trump administration Pentagon hires who have opposed U.S. engagement in the Middle East.

McConnell, in a biting statement after the vote, cast doubt that Hegseth has the experience needed to tame the massive bureaucracy.

“Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough,” McConnell said. “And ‘dust on boots’ fails even to distinguish this nominee from multiple predecessors of the last decade. Nor is it a precondition for success.”

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was seen as a potential defector, but after meeting with Hegseth announced he’d back Trump’s nominee.

Democrats pointed to mounting allegations as proof of Hegseth’s unfitness for the job and a flawed vetting process.

"Of all the people we could have as secretary of Defense, is Pete Hegseth really the best one we've got?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Come on, you know he isn't. You know he's not even close."

Hegseth’s policy plans are only vaguely known. His views on the Pentagon budget and acquisition process came up during his hearing, but they didn’t differ greatly from the Biden administration’s efforts.

The new Pentagon chief has already promised to bring culture wars to the department. Hegseth, at his confirmation hearing, said troops will “rejoice” at his push away from Biden-era social policies.

“They want to focus on lethality and warfighting, and get all the woke political prerogative, politically correct social justice political stuff out of the military,” he told senators.

Hegseth has also followed Trump’s lead on slamming the military’s top generals as out of touch. He has complained that the Pentagon is top-heavy with three- and four-star generals. But it’s not clear how that changes in the near term, as any purge would have huge consequences down the chain of command.

The fight over his nomination and personal conduct drew comparisons to two past Senate confirmation battles: Kavanaugh and former Sen. John Tower. Republicans likened the allegations against Hegseth to Kavanaugh, arguing both were motivated by partisan attempts to sink the nominees.

Tower, a former Senate Armed Services chair, was rejected by the Senate in 1989 to be then-President George H.W. Bush’s Pentagon chief amid allegations of past alcohol abuse that were corroborated by an FBI background review.

Hegseth pledged not to consume alcohol if confirmed to the job, similar to a promise Tower made in a bid to save his nomination.

Democrats have taken aim at many of Hegseth’s controversial statements — including opposing women in combat roles and gay people serving in the military, criticizing diversity efforts in the ranks and defending U.S. troops convicted of war crimes.

Hegseth has walked back his rhetoric on women in combat and gay troops serving in uniform, although it hasn’t convinced his detractors. Collins said Thursday she was “not convinced that his position on women serving in combat roles has changed.”

His opponents also argued Hegseth — who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and left the Army National Guard as a major in 2021 — lacks the character and professional background to run the government’s largest agency.

Hegseth spun his lack of traditional Pentagon experience as a positive and argued to senators that the bureaucracy would benefit from a leader “with dust on his boots.”

His staunchest allies argued that, while unconventional, he’s Trump’s choice to shake up the Pentagon’s bureaucracy and will be backed by a team of experienced officials.

“He’s not beholden to the status quo and is open to new ideas,” Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said in a speech this week. “He’s intent on lethality and readiness, as we should all be.”

Joe Gould, Paul McLeary and Jack Detsch contributed to this report.

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