OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Dozens of retired generals and admirals have signed a letter backing former Fox News host and Army vet Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary.
More than 120 flag officers voiced their “strong support” for Hegseth following weeks of intense media scrutiny, much of which came from anonymous sources.
They wrote, “He understands combat from the grassroots level and will bring that much-needed perspective with him as the next SECDEF.”
“He has studied and experienced the disastrous effects Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has on our military, and he is committed to expunging it from our armed forces. His focus is solely on warfighting readiness so that our military is prepared to fulfill its mission—to fight and win our nation’s wars,” the flag officers added.
The retired generals and admirals stated that Hegseth’s passion for the military was evident, and his experience in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrated that he was the “warrior” the U.S. needed to lead its armed forces.
They also pointed out that Trump chose Hegseth from a pool of other talented and qualified individuals, believing that Hegseth was the best fit to lead the Pentagon and bring about the necessary changes.
“President Trump has the right and responsibility to select key people who are capable of fulfilling his promises to the American people. Prominent in that mandate was making our military strong and lethal, to include removing what is called “wokeness” in the form of (DEI) from our armed forces,” the retired officers wrote.
Over the past week and a half, more Republican senators have expressed confidence in Hegseth leading the Department of Defense after meeting with the 44-year-old. Trump addressed Hegseth’s confirmation process during remarks with reporters on Monday, stating that he has been “making tremendous strides over the last week.”
“He’s going to be great,” Trump said. “Look, he went to Princeton. He went to Harvard. He was a great student there. But he really was, from the first day I met him, all he wanted to talk about was military. He’s just a military guy. I think it’s a natural.”
WATCH:
🚨TRUMP: “Pete Hegseth is making tremendous strides. He went to Princeton, Harvard, and from the first day I met him all he wanted to talk about is military. He was my idea. He gave up a lot. He was going big places at FOX. Lots of money. When I asked him if he wanted to do this,… pic.twitter.com/pUk90i64Nh
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 17, 2024
Meanwhile, a prominent GOP critic of Trump appears to be preparing to oppose key aspects of the incoming administration’s foreign policy agenda despite the electoral mandate of America First.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is challenging Trump’s foreign policy outlook, urging the president-elect to reject what he describes as America First’s “flirtation with isolation and decline” in an essay published in Foreign Affairs on Monday.
The former Senate Republican leader is also encouraging the administration to adopt many foreign policy positions that Trump notably opposed during the campaign, including supporting increased foreign aid, free trade agreements, solidarity with NATO, and more weapons transfers to Ukraine.
The United States urgently needs to reach a bipartisan consensus on the centrality of hard power to U.S. foreign policy. Read my full essay in @ForeignAffairs: https://t.co/Z463yFxxPk
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) December 16, 2024
“The [Trump] administration will face calls from within the Republican Party to give up on American primacy,” McConnell wrote in Foreign Affairs. “It must reject them. To pretend that the United States can focus on just one threat at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it can afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to ignore its global interests and its adversaries’ global designs. America will not be made great again by those who simply want to manage its decline.”
