Pete Hegseth has been narrowly confirmed as Donald Trump’s defence secretary, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.
Rarely has a Cabinet nominee faced such wide-ranging concerns about his experience and behaviour as Mr Hegseth, particularly for such a high-profile role atop the US military.
But the Republican-led US Senate on Friday was determined to confirm Mr Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran who has vowed to bring a “warrior culture” to the Pentagon, rounding out Mr Trump’s top national security Cabinet officials.
Mr Vance was on hand to cast a tie-breaking vote, unusual in the Senate for Cabinet nominees, who typically win wider support.
Congratulations, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth! pic.twitter.com/sLag0bsoQP
— GOP (@GOP) January 25, 2025
Mr Hegseth himself was at the Capitol with his family.
Senate majority leader John Thune said Mr Hegseth, as a veteran of the Army National Guard who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, “will bring a warrior’s perspective” to the top military job.
“Gone will be the days of woke distractions,” Mr Thune said, referring to the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives being slashed across the federal government.
“The Pentagon’s focus will be on warfighting.”
The Senate’s ability to confirm Mr Hegseth despite a grave series of allegations against him will provide a measure of Mr Trump’s political power and ability to get what he wants from the Republican-led Congress and of the potency of the culture wars to fuel his agenda at the White House.
Next week senators will be facing Mr Trump’s other outside Cabinet choices including particularly Kash Patel, a Trump ally who has published an enemies list, as the FBI director; Tulsi Gabbard as director of the office of national intelligence; and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine advocate at Health and Human Services.
“Is Pete Hegseth truly the best we have to offer?” said senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, urging his colleagues to think seriously about their vote.
Mr Hegseth himself was working the phones late on Friday to shore up his support, his confirmation at stake.
Since Mr. Hegseth’s nomination last November, I have met with him and carefully reviewed his writings, various reports, and other pertinent materials. I closely followed his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee and gathered substantial feedback from organizations,…
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) January 23, 2025
“He’s a good man,” Mr Trump said of Mr Hegseth while departing the White House to visit disaster-hit North Carolina and Los Angeles.
“I hope he makes it.”
Mr Trump levelled criticism of senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and senator Susan Collins of Maine, who announced they would vote against Mr Hegseth.
And Mr Trump raised fresh questions about senator Mitch McConnell, saying: “And of course, Mitch is always a no vote, I guess. Is Mitch a no-vote?”
In the end all three voted against Mr Hegseth, as tensions soared late on Friday at the Capitol.
Mr McConnell, the former Republican leader in the Senate, had not declared his vote, but signalled scepticism in an earlier speech when he declared he would confirm nominees to senior national security roles “whose record and experience will make them immediate assets, not liabilities”.
It takes a simple majority to confirm Mr Hegseth, and Republicans, with a 53-47 majority in the Senate, could only lose one more objection.
Democrats, as the minority party, have helped confirm secretary of state Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe in bipartisan votes to Mr Trump’s national security team within days of his return to the White House.
But Democrats gravely opposed to Mr Hegseth have little power to stop him, and instead have resorted to dragging out the process.
Senator Chris Murphy said during the debate there are few Trump nominees as “dangerously and woefully unqualified as Hegseth”.
Mr Hegseth faces allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman at a Republican conference in California, though he has denied the claims and said the encounter was consensual. He later paid 50,000 dollars (£40,000) to the woman.
More recently, Mr Hegseth’s former sister-in-law said in an affidavit that he was abusive to his second wife to the point that she feared for her safety.
Mr Hegseth has denied the allegation, and in divorce proceedings, neither Mr Hegseth nor the woman claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse.
