The Apprentice

I assume Rob will have something to say about this, but on its surface it seems like some sort of bad joke:

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army veteran, to serve as his secretary of defense.

“Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country,” Trump said in a Tuesday statement announcing the selection. “Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.”

Hegseth has a long record in the military, serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He has also acted as an informal adviser to Trump for a number of years while he was in and out of office, Trump advisers told CNN. While Hegseth was considered for a number of positions in Trump’s first administration, he was ultimately passed over, they said.

Hegseth’s name was not among those considered as likely picks for Trump’s defense secretary among Pentagon officials. In fact, his name hardly emerged in the run-up to the announcement, if at all.

One defense official told CNN, “Everyone is simply shocked.” Another Pentagon official who was following the potential picks for defense secretary learned about the possibility of Hegseth only in the hours before the nomination and, like others who spoke on condition of anonymity with CNN, didn’t know how to react.

But in Hegseth, Trump is likely to have a loyalist leading the department with which he had an often rocky relationship during his first term. The president-elect feuded with his first defense secretary, James Mattis, who resigned in protest after Trump announced an immediate withdrawal of US forces from Syria. Mark Esper, Trump’s other confirmed defense secretary, had openly warned about the threat of another Trump administration in the weeks leading up to the election.

I mean I guess it could have been Vince McMahon or Ted Nugent.