OAN Staff James Meyers
9:10 AM – Wednesday, December 4, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump is considering replacing Pete Hegseth with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as his defense secretary pick, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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The report comes as Hegseth, a 44-year-old Army veteran and former Fox News talent, faces controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement.
“Trump talked to the governor and wants him to do it,” a source familiar with the conversation told NBC News on Tuesday night.
NBC News reported Tuesday night that Hegseth’s nomination is in crisis because as many as six GOP senators are up in the air in their support for him.
DeSantis (R-Fla.), a former member of the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps, was on a very short-list of potential options to become the next defense secretary before Trump went with Hegseth, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Multiple sources who spoke to the Journal cautioned that Trump, 78, could settle on a different replacement for Hegseth should his nomination fail.
According to the Journal, the idea of being nominated has been run by DeSantis in recent days.
The 47th president and the governor were together on Tuesday at a memorial service for slain police officers in Palm Beach County, Florida.
DeSantis has been a vocal critic of “woke” Pentagon policies, like Trump and Hegseth.
During his presidential primary campaign, DeSantis proposed eliminating Pentagon diversity initiatives and cutting military programs focused on climate change.
“Our mantra on Jan. 20, 2025, as commander-in-chief will be very simple: mission first, accomplish the mission,” DeSantis said on the campaign trail in South Carolina last year, blaming “wokeism” for a drop in military recruitment.
“We also have to ensure that there’s good order and discipline on military installations,” the Sunshine State governor added. “Having things like drag shows on military bases should not be allowed.”
Additionally, the Florida governor said if he was president that he would get rid of a Biden-Harris administration policy that allows transgender service members to serve in the military under their preferred sex.
He also said he would reinstate personnel who were forced out for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, Hegseth has been on Capitol Hill this week looking for support for his nomination, meeting with multiple GOP senators.
Days after being picked to serve as defense secretary, reports surfaced that Hegseth faced a 2017 sexual assault allegation out of Monterey County, California.
Hegseth was never charged and his lawyer claims the allegations were “false.”
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