President-elect Donald Trump has made a number of eye-popping choices for leadership roles in his next administration. His choice of right-wing stalwart Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general has certainly surprised the Washington cognoscenti.
So too has Trump’s naming of former Democratic congresswoman and Army helicopter pilot Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence. An outspoken critic of military operations against Syria — in 2019 she asserted that President Bashar al Assad “was not the enemy of the United States” — Gabbard would be the first Samoan-American to hold a cabinet-level office.
Trump’s appointment of Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of Defense has also raised many eyebrows. Commentators have noted that he has virtually no management experience, nor does he have a background in electoral politics. But consider that Robert McNamara became secretary of Defense after serving as president of the Ford Motor Company — although he later played a key role in America’s disastrous misadventure in Vietnam.
Hegseth’s lack of a political background likewise need not hinder his leadership of the Pentagon. Although some former legislators such as Leon Panetta — who had also served in various executive branch positions, including as White House chief of staff — were quite successful secretaries of Defense, others were not. Les Aspin, who had been a highly capable chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and had worked in the Pentagon as a systems analyst, lasted less than a year as secretary under President Clinton and was widely seen as a failure in the job.
Hegseth is a decorated Army veteran, awarded several medals for his service, including two bronze stars. He was an early Trump supporter. Perhaps due to his military experience, he has articulated a number of controversial opinions. He has argued that women should not serve in land combat units, especially in the Special Operating Forces, because they lack the necessary stamina to fulfill their missions. He also was a leading advocate for Trump to issue pardons to two soldiers convicted of war crimes; Trump granted the pardons.
Hegseth has been an outspoken critic of the Department’s diversity initiatives, which he labels “woke.” He has publicly called for the firing of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom he accuses of advocating “woke” policies. Brown is in his second year of service as chairman.
Although the post is usually held for four years, this custom is not always observed. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld decided not to renew Peter Pace’s term as chairman, and the Marine general stepped down after two years’ service. There can be little doubt that Hegseth would quickly seek Brown’s departure, should he win Senate confirmation.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump may issue an executive order creating a board of retired military officers that would recommend removal of general and flag officers deemed insufficiently demonstrating leadership qualities — that is, supporters of “woke” policies. Hegseth would no doubt would implement this order with considerable relish.
Trump has also called for the purging of senior officers who played a key role in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Hegseth could be expected to lose little time in seeking their removal. Hegseth also is likely to roll back numerous Pentagon climate-change initiatives, which the current administration has assigned high priority as key to defeating what it has termed a major national security threat.
It is unclear how much the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” which Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are slated to lead, will affect the Pentagon’s civilian staff. Hegseth would no doubt quickly identify Trump haters in the department — there are more than a few of them — and he might then look to Musk and Ramaswamy to support his efforts to fire these people. Finally, should Trump deploy the military to expel illegal immigrants, Hegseth would implement the president’s wishes.
Hegseth is unlikely to be a leading figure in determining foreign national security policy, however. Like Trump, he is known to be skeptical of both America’s role in NATO and Washington’s support for Ukraine, but he can be expected to follow the lead of the White House and the State Department in these and other matters.
On the other hand, Hegseth has been a vocal supporter of Israel and would certainly promote military cooperation with the Jewish State. His views mesh with those of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Trump’s choice for secretary of State; Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Trump’s pick for ambassador to the UN; Mike Huckabee, whom Trump has chosen as ambassador to Israel; Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), whom Trump has named national security advisor; and Trump himself.
All of the foregoing remains speculation until Trump actually takes office and Hegseth and his colleagues are confirmed by the Senate. Moreover, even when he does take office, Hegseth will discover that purging civil servants, or even bending them to his will, is far from an easy matter. The executive branch bureaucracy has always managed to undermine political leaders who threatened it. Indeed, bureaucrats are most effective when it comes to protecting themselves and their turf.
As secretary, Hegseth would have the power to issue orders of all sorts. The military will no doubt comply, unless those orders violate the law — the Uniform Code of Military Justice mandates that they cannot follow illegal orders.
Civilian workers are another matter, however. They can and do avoid implementing orders, even if those are quite legal. Rumsfeld discovered the limits of his power when, in the face of opposition from the civil service unions, he was unable to restructure the Department of Defense’s system of pay and promotions.
Should Hegseth win Senate confirmation, he will discover when he takes office that changing the Pentagon’s behavioral and cultural patterns is easier said than done. Instead, he might find himself like Gulliver, tied up in knots by the Lilliputians of the five-sided building. He would not be the first, nor the last, to suffer that fate.
Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
