WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday offered a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice to lead the Defense Department, whose confirmation by the Senate is in doubt as he faces questions over allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, Army National Guard major and combat veteran, spent much of the week on Capitol Hill trying to salvage his Cabinet nomination.
“Pete Hegseth is doing very well,” Trump posted on his social media site. “He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense.” The president-elect added that “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
The battle over Hegseth is emerging not only as a debate about the best person to lead the Pentagon, but an inflection point for a movement that appears to relish a fight over its push for a more masculine military and an end to what it terms “woke-ism.” Trump’s allies are rallying around Hegseth; the conservative Heritage Foundation’s political arm is promising to spend $1 million to shore up his nomination.
“We’re not abandoning this nomination,” Vice President-elect JD Vance said as he toured post-hurricane North Carolina.
The effort has become a test of Trump’s clout and of how far loyalty for the president-elect goes with Republican senators who have concerns about some of his nominees. Two of Trump’s other choices stepped aside as they faced scrutiny: former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), his first choice for attorney general, and Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff who was Trump’s first pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The president’s son Donald J. Trump Jr. also made a show of support for Hegseth. “If you’re a GOP Senator who voted for Lloyd Austin, but criticize @PeteHegseth, then maybe you’re in the wrong political party!” he wrote on X, referring to President Biden’s Defense secretary.
Thanking the president-elect for the support, Hegseth posted on social media, “Like you, we will never back down.”
Hegseth has promised not to drink on the job and told lawmakers he never engaged in sexual misconduct, even as his professional views on female troops have also come under intensifying scrutiny. He said as recently as last month that women “straight up” should not serve in combat.
The president-elect and his team have been pleased to see Hegseth putting up a fight and his performance this week reiterates why he was chosen, according to a person familiar with Trump’s thinking who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. They believe he can still be confirmed.
Still, Trump’s transition team has been looking at potential replacements if Hegseth’s nomination cannot move forward, including former presidential rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Despite a weeklong push of private Capitol Hill meetings, Hegseth is facing resistance from senators as reports have emerged about his past, including the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies.
The New Yorker cited what it described as a whistleblower report and other documents about his time leading a veterans advocacy groups that alleged incidents of alcohol intoxication at work events, inappropriate behavior around female staffers and financial mismanagement.
The New York Times obtained an email from his mother, Penelope, from 2018 in which she accused him of mistreating women after he impregnated his current wife while he was married to his previous wife. She went on “Fox & Friends” this week to defend her son.
Associated Press writer Long reported from Washington, Colvin from New York. AP writers Darlene Superville in Fariview, N.C., Michelle L. Price in New York, Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
