Ron DeSantis a possible replacement for Pete Hegseth: reports

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary Pete Hegseth could be replaced amid concerns about the former Fox News host’s past, according to reports.

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Sources close to the matter told the Wall Street Journal, CNN and the Associated Press that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was a possible replacement. A deluge of allegations against Hegseth have resurfaced, including mistreatment of women, sexual assault and drinking.

President Donald Trump with Pete Hegseth, while he was the host of Fox & Friends, at a Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 6, 2017. Photo by Andrew Harnik /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

There are six senators who were “potentially opposed to his nomination,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Trump has not publicly pulled back support and neither have any Republican senators, but “Trump allies increasingly think Hegseth might not survive further scrutiny,” sources said, per the Wall Street Journal.

The Left ‘are afraid of (Donald Trump) — and me,’ Pete Hegseth says

Hegseth, however, said he is not backing down in a post on X.

“I’m doing this for the war fighters, not the warmongers,” he wrote, sharing a photo of himself, alongside other soldiers, when he was part of the Army National Guard.

“The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of (Donald Trump) — and me.”

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DeSantis — who ran against Trump at the outset of the 2024 presidential election — served as a lawyer for the Navy at the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He was later deployed to Iraq.

He’s a “well-known conservative with a service record who shares Trump’s — and Hegseth’s — view on culling what they see as ‘woke’ policies in the military,” the Wall Street Journal reported. One source said that Trump brought up DeSantis “in casual conversations with guests at Mar-a-Lago.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers remarks and answers questions at a news conference, Sept. 16, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. Photo by John Raoux /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Other picks who are reportedly being considered to run the Pentagon, sources told the publication, are Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development Elbridge Colby and Senator Joni Ernst, who served in the military for 23 years.

Despite the rumours that Hegseth may not make it through questioning from senators, he said that he spoke to Trump on Wednesday morning. The president-elect told him to keep “fighting,” Hegseth said, CNN reported.

He is set to have a “closed-door meeting” with the Republican Study Committee on Wednesday, per CNN.

Elbridge Colby: Another Trump pick being considered to replace Hegseth

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Colby, a potential pick to replace Hegseth, has a long history of working with the U.S. Department of Defense.

He was appointed to the role of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development in 2017. He was a leader in developing the department’s National Defense Strategy, which was released the following year.

The strategy shifted the department’s focus to “the challenges to U.S. security interests posed first and foremost by China, followed by Russia; emphasized restoring the Joint Force’s warfighting edge against these major power competitors; and stressed the importance of clearly focusing on these priorities over lesser interests,” according to Colby’s biography in The Marathon Initiative, a non-profit research organization that was co-founded by Colby. 

He also served more than five years in the Department of Defesnse earlier in his career, as well as in the department of State. He previously worked within the Intelligence Community on a range of “strategic forces, WMD, and intelligence reform matters, including service with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003,” per the U.S. government’s webpage about Colby.

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He authored a book in 2022 entitled The Strategy of Denial.

“I make no presumptions about roles for myself, but I deeply and fervently hope that (Donald Trump) is able to implement the foreign policy vision that he has so ably – and bravely – laid out,” Colby said in a post on X on Nov. 10.

Joni Ernst also being considered to replace Hegseth

Ernst is a U.S. senator for Iowa. She lives in Red Oak. She serves on various senate committees, including Armed Services and Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, according to her profile on her webpage. She is a ranking member on the Small Business & Entrepreneurship committee and a chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

She joined the U.S. Army Reserves after graduating from university. She was a company commander in Kuwait and Iraq in 2003. Ernst served in the military for 23 years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard.

She was called the “obvious choice” by a former staffer on Capitol Hill Doug Heye in a post on X on Tuesday.

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