The secretary of defense is the linchpin of America’s national security architecture. They must ensure the United States’ armed forces remain the best led, best trained, and best equipped; provide the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) with the strategic vision to confront an always-evolving threat landscape; and oversee complex operations in an era of intensifying great-power competition.
In short, it’s a job for an exceptional leader with a proven track record of success.
Hegseth is a pick for loyalty over competence
President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to lead the DOD flies in the face of these requirements. Hegseth lacks the qualifications, credibility, and leadership experience to steer the Pentagon, and his nomination reflects a broader pattern in Trump’s administration picks: a preference for loyalty above all else. Hegseth’s lack of experience is a stark contrast to former secretaries of defense such as Robert Gates or Leon Panetta, who previously managed complex government agencies such as the CIA (both Gates and Panetta) or the Office of Management and Budget (Panetta). Hegseth also lacks the depth and variety of past leadership positions that previous secretaries, including Mark Esper and Ashton Carter, gained through a long career in and out of government.
An inexperienced secretary of defense harms readiness and care of U.S. service members, sends a signal of weakness to the United States’ adversaries, and will make Americans less safe at home and abroad.
An inexperienced secretary of defense harms readiness and care of U.S. service members, sends a signal of weakness to the United States’ adversaries, and will make Americans less safe at home and abroad.
Hegseth lacks the resume for a demanding job
Hegseth served as an Army National Guard officer from 2002 to 2021, with combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, leading the Pentagon is a vastly different challenge. The DOD is a behemoth, with close to 3.4 million civilian and military personnel and an $850 billion budget for fiscal year 2025. Its operations span more than 80 countries and include maintaining the nuclear arsenal and delivering disaster relief. The scale and complexity of the Pentagon’s operations demand leaders who can unify a vast workforce, manage intricate systems, and balance military effectiveness with fiscal responsibility.
As the second-in-command to the commander in chief, the secretary of defense must also lead the nation in ensuring that the United States’ military operations are conducted with the highest consideration for ethical and legal standards. The secretary must ensure adherence to U.S. and international law in all military or defense intelligence operations and must be willing to seek accountability when violations occur.
Hegseth has no record of managing a body even a fraction of this scale or import. Beyond his service in the National Guard, he has led small nonprofit organizations and has been an on-air cable news host. Hegseth has asserted that he believes U.S. troops need not respect the Geneva Conventions—laws that detail how soldiers and civilians should act and be treated during war—and he has supported illegal torture techniques such as waterboarding. He lobbied for impunity for service members accused of war crimes, including former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, whose own platoon courageously spoke up about his violations of the laws of war. These positions are shocking for any military officer, let alone the secretary of defense, and put America’s deployed service members at risk of reprisal.
Hegseth lacks the necessary strategic vision for America’s defense challenge
The DOD operates on a 30-year planning horizon, requiring strategic foresight to predict and counter emerging threats. Today, the United States faces a challenging and evolving security environment. Peer and near-peer rivals, led by China and Russia, are testing America’s military edge and reshaping the global balance of power. Rapidly evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence are already transforming threat landscapes, and satellite infrastructure could outpace U.S. capabilities in space. Nuclear nonproliferation will present a key challenge in the coming years. Against this backdrop, the Commission on the National Defense Strategy in July 2024 bluntly assessed that “the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”
To meet this moment, the next secretary of defense must be a visionary who can anticipate threats; provide leadership to the joint force during moments of profound change; and oversee procurement, personnel, and operations strategies. Leading the DOD will require confronting the rapid evolution of warfare, from hypersonic weapons to artificial intelligence, and aligning America’s military capabilities with its strategic goals.
Hegseth is focusing on cultural battles and risks distracting the department from its primary mission: safeguarding the nation.
Yet Hegseth’s public career shows no evidence of his ability—or interest—in addressing these urgent challenges. Instead, he appears more interested in fueling culture wars. Hegseth has attacked diversity in the ranks, vowing to eliminate recruitment and retention programs and to purge officers he considers to be “woke,” such as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. This approach is particularly dangerous for the DOD; the military’s effectiveness depends on its ability to remain above the fray and stay focused solely on safeguarding the nation. Instead of addressing pressing national security issues, Hegseth is focusing on cultural battles and risks distracting the department from its primary mission: safeguarding the nation.
Hegseth has a proven track record of financial mismanagement
Managing a near trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded budget requires exemplary commitment to fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, in November 2024, the Pentagon failed to pass an audit for the seventh year in a row. In 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the DOD wasted $37 billion in procurement delays alone. A 2021 GAO report found that 40 percent of major weapons programs exceeded cost estimates by at least 25 percent, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. The next secretary of defense must streamline processes; commit to and oversee financial management reform; and navigate and steward good relations with Congress as it conducts oversight.
Hegseth lacks the requisite financial and strategic management skills. He served in leadership roles of the small nonprofit organizations Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America from 2008 to 2016. Tax filings for both of these organizations show ledgers with higher expenditures than revenue during his leadership tenure, and The New Yorker has reported that serious allegations of financial mismanagement contributed to his departure from both these roles.
Hegseth’s positions on women and LGBTQI+ service members harm military readiness
In a November 7, 2024, podcast interview with Shawn Ryan, Hegseth declared, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.” Hegseth has repeatedly attacked pro-LGBTQI+ policy, openly opposing both the original unprecedented “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and its repeal, which allowed all service members to be judged on the basis of their military training, readiness for deployment, and integrity; Hegseth said these policies prioritized a social agenda over military readiness. Positions like these are counterproductive. The military’s readiness depends on leveraging its full talent pool, and research consistently shows that diverse teams perform better in high-stakes environments. While Hegseth has walked back these remarks in the face of heated criticism after Trump announced his nomination, these regressive positions call into question Hegseth’s commitment to a diverse armed forces and civilian workforce.
Further, reports of alleged on-air intoxication during his Fox News tenure and allegations of sexual misconduct cast serious doubt on Hegseth’s judgment and discipline. Sexual assault and sexual harassment continue to plague military institutions. In 2023, the Pentagon reported an all-time high rate of sexual assault at its service academies, and Pentagon surveys in 2021 revealed a 25 percent increase in sexual assaults from 2018 and “a near total lack of prevention specialists.”
The high level of service of women and LGBTQI+ service members is not an item for debate; it is a measure to be recognized and supported.
Hegseth’s positions on women and LGBTQI+ service members are not only antiquated and regressive, they are particularly problematic at a time when the military is struggling to meet recruitment and retention goals. The high level of service of women and LGBTQI+ service members is not an item for debate; it is a measure to be recognized and supported, and creating a hostile or unsafe environment for these service members undermines military readiness. The secretary of defense must foster a diverse fighting force and ensure that all service members, no matter their gender or sexual orientation, are able to serve the country safely and with support and respect from their leaders.
Conclusion
The consequences of Hegseth’s appointment would reverberate far beyond the Pentagon. His lack of credibility and diplomatic acumen threatens to undermine alliances, embolden adversaries, and weaken America’s standing on the global stage—all outcomes that raise risks to the safety of the American people.
America’s armed forces deserve leadership that is competent, credible, and focused on the challenges ahead. The American people deserve a secretary of defense who will prioritize an effective and accountable Department of Defense ready to keep the nation safe against rapidly evolving threats. Hegseth is not that leader. His confirmation is a risk the nation cannot afford.