Donald Trump’s first choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was already facing a well-earned uphill battle to make it to a confirmation hearing. But now some of his previous clips on Fox News, where Hegseth is a host, could come back to bite him.
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski dug up some of Hegseth’s appearances from when he had a far more critical view of Trump. In clips from 2015 and 2016, Hegseth attacks then-candidate Trump for his criticisms of the United States’ ill-advised war with Iraq and continuing presence in Afghanistan.
"You wouldn't want a top-tier presidential candidate getting all of their military advice from watching ‘Meet the Press,’”Hegseth said on Fox News in August 2015. “Foreign policy and national security is not about TV shows. … They're going to have to walk back a little bit from this idea that he gets it from the political shows.”
“It's typical Trump. All bluster. Very little substance,” Hegseth said on air in March 2016. “He talks a tough game, but then when pressed on it, he's an armchair tough guy. I hate to say it, but this is a guy who said that John McCain is not a war hero, yet he sought his own five military deferments.”
Hegseth’s sharp criticisms of Trump are not unique in the conservative world. In fact, they aren’t even unique amongst the people Trump has chosen for top positions in his second administration:
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Vice President-elect JD Vance had a lot of bad things to say about his boss—until he wanted to run for a Senate seat in Ohio. Search the terms “America’s Hitler” and “Vance” and you’ll see something like this.
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Trump’s choice for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, repeatedly described the convicted felon as a “con artist” when they were both campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
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Edgelord Elon Musk, who will co-lead an extra-governmental task force, was called “another bullshit artist” by Trump in 2022. Musk responded by saying it was time for “Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, previously described Trump and his supporters as “cowards,” "belligerent idiots,” and “outright Nazis.”
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Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be the director of national intelligence, once called him “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” following his weak response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which is suspected to have been carried out by allies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
New reports suggest Trump may jettison Hegseth for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis, who was routinely humiliated by Trump during this year’s Republican presidential primary, has described Trump as no longer having the “zip on [his] fastball.”
Trump has surrounded himself not with a team of rivals but a team of debased sycophants who are ready to shred their morals and sense of dignity if it means amassing more power.
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