Media: Trump shocks Washington with surprising decision

US President-elect Donald Trump's surprise selection of conservative commentator and television host Pete Hegseth as his choice for Pentagon chief on November 12 night stunned Washington.

Washington had anticipated that the nominee would be a seasoned lawmaker or someone with substantial defence policy experience, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media. 

National security officials and defence analysts, who had braced for surprises given Trump’s first four years in office, were still caught off-guard by the choice of Hegseth, a Fox News host and decorated Army veteran. 

"It appears that one of the main criteria that’s being used is, how well do people defend Donald Trump on television?" said Eric Edelman, a former Pentagon policy official during the Bush administration. "Trump puts the highest value on loyalty," he added in an interview.

One response was more blunt. “Who the fuck is this guy?” a defence industry lobbyist, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, remarked. The lobbyist went on to say they had hoped for "someone who actually has an extensive background in defence. That would be a good start." Hegseth’s selection does little to ease concerns inside the Pentagon and beyond, where many fear that Trump, having clashed with his previous defence secretaries, intends to install a loyalist who will unquestioningly carry out his policies. 

Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail has fueled concerns that his second term could bring a swift and divisive overhaul at the Pentagon. Trump’s return is expected to roll back many Biden administration policies, including the reinstatement of a ban on transgender troops, an end to abortion travel policies, renewed debates over bases named after Confederate figures, cuts to diversity programs, and the potential deployment of troops on US soil to address civil unrest and political opposition. Late in his first term, Trump ordered the withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Germany, a plan the Pentagon struggled to implement given the limited time left in his administration.

Hegseth's nomination quickly sparked backlash from veterans' groups, many of whom had opposed him when he was considered for Veterans Affairs secretary during Trump’s first term. A former executive director of Vets for Freedom and CEO of Concerned Veterans for America—a group advocating for the outsourcing of veterans' healthcare and funded by the Koch brothers—Hegseth has long been a controversial figure in veteran circles.

“Hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history. And the most overtly political. Brace yourself, America,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Independent Veterans of America, wrote in a post on X. 

By Naila Huseynova