Hegseth Once Chided Trump For Taking Military Advice From TV Personalities
Now, the Fox News host is Trump’s nominee to head the department of defense.
YEARS BEFORE HE WAS A weekend TV host chosen by Donald Trump to serve as secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth was chiding Trump for getting military advice from people on TV.
In a 2015 Fox News interview unearthed by The Bulwark, Hegseth was asked to respond to a separate Trump interview on Meet The Press, in which the then-presidential candidate was asked who he turned to for military expertise.
“I watch the shows,” Trump said.
Hegseth, who at the time was the CEO of the conservative group Concerned Veterans for America, wanted more.
There are a lot of folks—and he even mentioned Ambassador Bolton. I mean, Jack Keane, Ralph Peters. I mean, when I watch him, I learn a ton. So it's not to say that you don’t learn, but you wouldn’t want a top-tier presidential candidate getting all of their military advice from watching Meet the Press. There’s a lot more nuance. There’s a lot more detail. And what people love about Donald Trump is he’s straightforward, he’s blunt. He tells it like it is. . . . But I think if I’m in, if I’ve got a glimpse inside their campaign, they’re probably assembling some generals right now to bring into a room to brief Donald Trump about some of these particular nuances, because at the end of the day, foreign policy and national security is not about TV shows. It’s a complex web of relationships, and I think they’re going to want him briefed on that kind of stuff.
Hegseth, like a lot of conservatives at that time, was dismissive of Trump. In a separate interview, he compared Trump’s foreign policy to Obama’s, and not in a complimentary way. His career has advanced since then. No longer a guest on Fox News, he was until stepping down recently a host for one of the network’s weekend shows. And in that capacity, he has attracted Trump’s eye.
The incoming president still turns to “the shows” for advice. As for Hegseth, his nomination to run the Department of Defense has been rocked by allegations of sexual assault. And he faces another, familiar accusation: that as a TV host—though one with military experience—his qualifications to run a massive bureaucracy are suspect.