President-elect Donald Trump is considering replacing embattled defense secretary choice Pete Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to two sources familiar with the decision-making.
DeSantis is “very much in contention,” one source said.
Another told NBC News that Trump and DeSantis directly spoke about the issue.
“Trump talked to the governor and wants him to do it,” a source familiar with the conversation told NBC News on Tuesday night.
NBC News reported Tuesday that Hegseth’s nomination is in jeopardy because as many as six GOP senators are wavering in their support for him.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday night that DeSantis was under consideration for the Cabinet post.
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DeSantis’ office and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
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Other possible contenders for the Pentagon top job include Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., according to two sources familiar with the decision-making.
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., whom Trump had chosen for White House national security adviser, is also a possible pick for leading the Pentagon, two other sources said.
Senators with reservations about Hegseth have expressed concern over allegations involving him and drinking and reports about his treatment of women, including a sexual assault allegation in 2017 over which he was never charged.
Hegseth has denied that he mistreated women and has said the encounter with the woman who accused him of assault, which whom he later reached an undisclosed settlement, was consensual. He did not respond when asked about the drinking allegations Tuesday evening.
In a post to X on Wednesday morning, Hegseth vowed not to withdraw as Trump’s pick, calling the reporting on the allegations against him an attempt to “smear” him “w/fake, anonymous sources & BS stories.”
“Our warriors will never back down, & neither will I,” he said.
For his part, DeSantis challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in this 2024 cycle and dropped out of the race in January, just days before the New Hampshire primary.
He immediately endorsed Trump despite the two feuding throughout the campaign and the former president nicknaming DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious.” Unlike many of Trump’s other picks for his future Cabinet, DeSantis has stated that Trump lost the 2020 election, while others have echoed the president-elect’s comments that it was stolen.
DeSantis was in the Navy and served in the Iraq War, eventually earning the rank of lieutenant commander.
Ernst, meanwhile, served in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, and ultimately held the rank of lieutenant colonel. She also served in the Iraq War.
Hagerty has no military experience. Before coming to Congress in 2021, he served as U.S. ambassador to Japan during the first Trump administration.
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