Reports: Donald Trump eyeing Ron DeSantis for Secretary of Defense

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 11/19/24-Gov. Ron DeSantis is recognized in the Senate during organizational session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Could Gov. Ron DeSantis end up in the Pentagon?

That’s the contention of well-sourced reporters covering the incoming Donald Trump White House, in blockbuster stories that follow the Governor and the President-elect both showing up and sitting together at a funeral for three Palm Beach Sheriff’s Officers slain in the line of duty.

While no one is going on record about the possibility of the Florida Governor replacing Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth as the President-elect’s pick, multiple media outlets are probing the possibility.

In The Wall Street Journal, reporter Alex Leary was the first to float the trial balloon Tuesday night that DeSantis may get the nod in response to “Republican senators’ concerns over mounting allegations about the former Fox News host’s personal life.”

Those “concerns,” per The Associated Press, come from moderates like Maine’s Susan Collins, who say the allegations against Hegseth illustrate “why a background check is important, why a committee investigation is critical.” Additionally, conservatives like Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville say that if issues with the former National Guardsman who deployed to Iraq and got two Bronze Stars reach a “certain degree, people aren’t going to vote to confirm him.”

At issue are allegations described by AP as “multiple incidents of alcohol intoxication at work events, inappropriate behavior around female staffers and financial mismanagement.”

Much of the AP’s case is based on an article in The New Yorker, which amplifies anonymous claims that Hegseth often drank to excess in his post-service roles with Vets for Freedom and the Concerned Veterans of America, which he had before joining Fox News as an on-air contributor and eventual Fox News host.

The thrice-married Hegseth, as the New Yorker argues, has acknowledged issues with alcohol as he recovered from what he saw on the front lines.

“I didn’t do much and I drank a lot trying to process what I had been through while dealing with a civilian world that frankly just didn’t seem to care,” he told Reserve and National Guard magazine, as re-reported in The New Yorker.

Meanwhile, the historically well-sourced Marc Caputo says in The Bulwark that DeSantis and Trump have discussed the possibility of the Governor going to the Defense Department, and per four sources from Trump and DeSantis’ respective orbits, talks are in “advanced stages.”

Caputo reports that DeSantis said, as far back as June, that he wanted to join the administration as Attorney General. But Trump clearly went in a different direction, initially advancing the nomination of former Congressman Matt Gaetz before that became untenable. Trump then pivoted to former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Trump talking to DeSantis while this is all going on is a sure sign that Trump doesn’t think Pete is gonna make it,” a source billed as a Trump advisor told Caputo.

On Wednesday morning, Hegseth’s former colleagues at Fox and Friends led off the 6 a.m. hour with knocking down the narrative that the former co-host is in trouble as a “witch hunt.”

“They’re going out there with unnamed sources when we sit on the couch with him every day,” said Lawrence B. Jones of the effort to “Kavanaugh” Hegseth.

“The way his detractors are describing him,” said Brian Kilmeade, “it would be impossible to think he’s still surviving.”

Kilmeade believes his former colleague is the “perfect person” to reform the Pentagon.

Jones went on to acknowledge that, just as was the case with Bondi replacing Gaetz, that DeSantis as nominee could spawn unintended consequences for Democrats and Trump’s political enemies.

“If you put DeSantis in, he’s going to be more of a disruptor” than Hegseth, Jones predicted.

The Governor has not spoken on record about the controversy and the potential career progression.

And at least for now, Trump isn’t on record either.

But sources from his orbit are speaking out.

“He has not been forthright with the Transition team staff and the President-elect and Vice President-elect,” a “senior Trump transition source” told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “He has hurt a lot of people as a result. He didn’t disclose anything. Tomorrow is going to be absolutely critical.”

Meanwhile, the Trump team has committed to Justice Department background checks of its appointees, suggesting that whatever the truth is in Hegseth’s history, it will come out.

“This allows the transition team to submit names for background checks and security clearances. Ultimately, this will afford the transition process additional insights, and it facilitates our agency landing teams gaining access to the information they need to prepare for leadership of the federal agencies and departments,” the transition team said Tuesday.

Though Trump World seems less than fully committed to Hegseth, a Florida Senator and former Governor with no real love for DeSantis offered an endorsement of the current DOD nominee Wednesday.

“I met with Hegseth this week and one of the reasons I support him is that he has led his fellow service men and women in combat. I support President Trump’s pick and look forward to his swift confirmation,” said U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.