Trump Picks Fox News Host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary

Photo: Andrew Harnik Archives Associated Press Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump at a White House event in April 2017

Agence France-Presse in Washington

Published at 10:40 p.m.

• United States

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he plans to nominate Pete Hegseth, a former U.S. Army major and current anchor on Fox News, the network favored by conservatives in the United States, as his defense secretary.

“With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” the president-elect said in a statement.

If confirmed by the Senate, Pete Hegseth, at age 44, will take charge of the most powerful armed forces on the planet.

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As a member of the U.S. National Guard, the infantry officer served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning two prestigious Bronze Star medals, according to his official website.

He joined Fox News as a consultant in 2014 and now co-hosts the popular weekend talk show Fox and Friends. He is also a presenter on the network's streaming service, Fox Nation.

Pete Hegseth is the author of several essays, including one entitled The War on Warriorswhich, according to Donald Trump's statement, “exposes the left's betrayal of our warriors and how we must return our armed forces to meritocracy, lethality, accountability and excellence.”

According to the American press, the presenter was tipped during Donald Trump's first term to obtain the portfolio of Veterans Affairs, but was ultimately not retained.

This time, he is about to take the head of a department that has more than 3.4 million soldiers and civilian employees.

Pete Hegseth is “tough, smart and a sincere believer in 'America First',” the president-elect declared on social networks social.

According to the Washington Post, Pete Hegseth had succeeded in 2019 in convincing Donald Trump to pardon two soldiers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan.

A graduate of the prestigious universities of Princeton and Harvard, Pete Hegseth nevertheless claims on his website that he returned his degree to the latter: in his show, he criticized the university for its supposed left-wing leanings.

He lives with his wife and seven children in Tennessee, a conservative state in the southern United States.