President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly mulling replacing Pete Hegseth as his nominee to run the Department of Defense with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as pressure mounts regarding allegations in the former Fox News host’s personal life.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “Trump has floated DeSantis’s name in casual conversations with guests at Mar-a-Lago.” Other possible replacements are Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon official and ally of Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA).
DeSantis, who ran against Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, shares Trump’s and Hegseth’s opinions on eliminating “woke” policies in the military and Pentagon.
DeSantis served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and was reportedly on a previous list of potential secretary of defense candidates before Trump picked Hegseth.
On Tuesday, Trump and DeSantis both attended a memorial service for fallen police officers in Palm Beach County, FL.
The Journal reported that Republican senators who have met with Hegseth have warned him about blistering public confirmation hearings due to the allegations against him. The outlet reported that there were potentially six senators opposed to his nomination. However, no Republican senators have publicly opposed Hegseth’s nomination, and he still has Trump’s backing.
No charges were ever filed against Hegseth. However, Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told The Wall Street Journal that the Fox News host paid the woman who made the allegations as part of a nondisclosure agreement, fearing that a lawsuit would end his job at the network.
Last week, the New York Times reported that Hegseth’s mother had written him an email in 2018 while he was going through a divorce with his then-wife Samantha claiming he was “an abuser of women.” His mother immediately apologized for the email and was set to join him on Fox to talk about it on Wednesday.
