Trump considers replacing secretary of defense pick Hegseth with Ron DeSantis
President-elect Donald Trump is considering replacing embattled defense secretary choice Pete Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two sources familiar with the decision-making told NBC News. One source told NBC News that Trump and DeSantis directly spoke about the issue while another said the governor is “very much in contention.” “Trump talked to the governor and wants him to do it,” a source familiar with the conversation told NBC News on Tuesday night. Trump and DeSantis appeared together on Tuesday at a ceremony to honor three fallen Palm Beach Sheriff’s deputies who were killed in a crash while in the line of duty. The Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday night that DeSantis was under consideration for the Cabinet post. DeSantis’ office and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment. Hegseth has faced 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. 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.
President-elect Donald Trump is considering replacing embattled defense secretary choice Pete Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two sources familiar with the decision-making told NBC News.
One source told NBC News that Trump and DeSantis directly spoke about the issue while another said the governor is “very much in contention.”
“Trump talked to the governor and wants him to do it,” a source familiar with the conversation told NBC News on Tuesday night.
Trump and DeSantis appeared together on Tuesday at a ceremony to honor three fallen Palm Beach Sheriff’s deputies who were killed in a crash while in the line of duty.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday night that DeSantis was under consideration for the Cabinet post.
DeSantis’ office and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Hegseth has faced 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.
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.
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