Trump nominates Fox News host for defense secretary

US President-elect Donald Trump has named Fox News host and former National Guardsman Pete Hegseth as his nominee for the next secretary of defense.

“I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as the secretary of defense,” Trump said in a statement carried by Fox News on Tuesday. 

“Pete has spent his entire life as a warrior for the troops, and for the country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,” he said.

Hegseth served as an infantry officer in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, according to his website. He studied politics at Princeton University and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

He co-hosts Fox & Friends Weekend and has appeared as a commentator on multiple Fox News’ shows.

Hegseth authored several books, including ‘The War on Warriors’, in which he heavily criticized “the woke elites” and the Democrats for undermining the Armed Forces.

“On the front end, a social justice military fails to recruit the masculine men who make up our warrior class,” he wrote.

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