President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he would nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defence and former Texas congressman John Ratcliffe to be director of the CIA, as he tapped hardliners and loyalists for his national security and foreign policy teams.
Hegseth, a 44-year-old army veteran who has no government experience, is an unconventional choice to lead one of the country’s largest employers, which includes almost 3mn military and civilian employees.
“Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump said in a statement.
The president-elect had a fraught relationship with civilian and military leaders at the Pentagon during his first term in office, churning through five secretaries of defence in four years. The selection of Hegseth suggests he will have a close ally who will be willing to enact his policy pronouncements and decisions.
Ratcliffe, who was director of national intelligence in the final year of Trump’s first term, is another staunch ally who, while in Congress, was a sharp critic of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.