Reports that President-elect Donald Trump is considering replacing Pete Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his nominee for Secretary of Defense are welcome news, although it is now critical that Trump follow through.
Quite simply, to preserve the image and respect of the United States military, our incoming Secretary of Defense must be someone far removed from the types of controversies surrounding Mr. Hegseth.
Ron DeSantis fits that mold.
From the minute Trump tapped Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran, to lead the Pentagon, reactions were mixed, as the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board aptly described.
They wrote that Hegseth “could hardly do worse than the so-called adults in the room of recent years” while also noting that his lack of leadership experience and drive to attack the Pentagon’s perceived “wokeness” risks politicizing the military at a dangerous time.
Putting those – very valid – concerns aside, some felt that Hegseth’s combat experience and position as an outsider would benefit a bloated U.S. military which has generally struggled to transition from fighting terrorists to the great power competitions of the 21st century.
However, in recent days, the continuous drip of revelations surrounding Hegseth has raised concerns among GOP Senators, and are now at the point of disqualifying him for the role, necessitating a switch to DeSantis.
Among the allegations surrounding Hegseth are a 2017 sexual-assault accusation, and a detailed description of Hegseth’s mistreatment of women in a 2018 email from his own mother.
While Hegseth settled the sexual-assault charges, and his mother described those emails as a mischaracterization of her son, the issues surrounding Hegseth’s nomination go far deeper.
According to the New York Times, Hegseth’s “heavy drinking and raucous behavior” while working at Fox News “escalated into episodes that were addressed by company officials.”
The Times report notes other occasions where Hegseth’s drinking caused problems during his time at Fox, including a coworkers wedding and the company’s 2016 Christmas party.
Finally, during Hegseth’s tenure leading two veterans groups – Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America – both groups fell deeply into debt, driven by mismanaged spending.
The Times also notes a whistleblower report from employees of Concerned Veterans for America claiming that “Hegseth had been drunk at multiple work-related events while there.”
It is important to note that both Mr. Hegseth and his lawyers have refuted all of these allegations, and Hegseth has pledged that, if confirmed, he would remain sober.
Moreover, Hegseth has also been very open about the fact that following a near-death experience while serving in Iraq, he struggled with addiction but has since turned his life around.
This is not to shame someone who has been open about his struggles, but rather to bluntly point out that the position of Secretary of Defense must be someone without these kinds of skeletons.
In that same vein, nominating DeSantis, a former Trump loyalist who drew the incoming president’s ire by challenging him in the 2024 primary, Trump would be showing a spirit of reconciliation and mending bridges, a genuine positive for the Republican Party as a whole.
To be sure, DeSantis, a former Navy lawyer in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, may also be seen as a questionable choice given his own lack of leadership experience at senior levels within the military.
However, DeSantis is nowhere as controversial as Hegseth, and he brings advantages that Hegseth does not.
Indeed, unlike Hegseth, the Florida Governor does have experience leading large bureaucracies, even if the state of Florida is dwarfed by the Pentagon’s roughly 3 million employees.
Similarly, DeSantis has shown himself to be an effective manager, who also shares Trump’s disdain for a military they see as too focused on “wokeness” at the expense of lethality and commitment to its mission.
There are political benefits to replacing Hegseth with DeSantis as well.
Some Republican Senators such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Kevin Cramer have been open about their reservations in regard to Hegseth, casting doubt on his ability to make it through.
A less controversial pick would speed up the confirmation process and lower the risk of a fight between Trump and Senate Republicans, freeing up time for legislating and addressing genuine issues such as inflation, the border, and an increasingly dangerous world.
To that end, it would benefit the United States and our allies if our Secretary of Defense could actually lead the military without having to deal with personal controversies of the kind Hegseth would have to confront.
The incoming Trump administration is inheriting a world considerably different – and more dangerous – than his first term, and the Secretary of Defense will have an immense responsibility.
Our military needs a considerable overhaul, which only someone totally focused on the job can oversee. A Pentagon leader surrounded by a cloud of alcohol-related issues and sexual-assault allegations simply cannot accomplish this.
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Further, and perhaps most dangerously, a Secretary of Defense who has publicly struggled with alcohol and sexual-assault allegations is unlikely to ever command respect from the troops serving under him.
Should the United States find itself fighting a full-scale war with a rising China, Russia, or Iran, Hegseth would likely struggle to command soldiers and officers who do not trust or respect him.
Ultimately, Hegseth may have been chosen because he scored well on Trump’s singular test – loyalty – but the issues surrounding him risk damaging the U.S. military, and those dangers outweigh Hegseth’s loyalty to Trump.
Put another way, the best thing for the country, for the world, and in fact, for his own administration, would be for President-elect Trump to replace Pete Hegseth with Ron DeSantis as nominee for the Secretary of Defense.
Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.