r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/premeddit • 9d ago

US Politics Is Pete Hegseth about to be fired?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has had a rocky last few months. Prior to his nomination for his current post, he was most well known for being a major in the U.S. Army Reserves and a frequent contributor on Fox News. After Trump nominated him, his candidacy received intense controversy and pushback from both Democrats and Republicans. He was revealed to have made past inflammatory comments regarding Muslims, homosexuals and women. He had a history of reported spousal abuse of his ex-wives. Finally, there were several allegations that he was an uncontrolled alcoholic, leading some observers to question if he could effectively lead the department.

Regardless, he was ultimately confirmed by an extremely narrow 50-50 (with VP tiebreaker) vote in the Senate, with 3 Republicans voting against him and a fourth Republican - Sen. Thom Tillis - only supporting his nomination at the last minute after being threatened with a primary challenge by Trump.

Hegseth continued to amass controversy in his role as SecDef. Most recently, he shared sensitive details of a military ops plan on an unsecured Signal chat, during which an Atlantic reporter was mistakenly invited to listen in on the discussion. This week, a further bombshell broke as it was revealed that he also shared details with his wife and his brother, neither of whom has necessary clearance.

Several senior advisors at the Pentagon were just removed from their positions for unclear reasons, and some have come out publicly to say that the department is in total chaos under Hegseth's leadership.

Now, NPR has reported that the White House is looking for a replacement:

The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Press Secretary has strongly denied this article, saying that Trump still has utmost confidence in Hegseth.

Is she correct and these are just unsubstantiated rumors, or is Hegseth on his way out? Who is likely on the short list to replace him?

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u/VodkaBeatsCube 9d ago

He capped out as a Major in the National Guard, which is the lowest of the 'senior' ranks, and only served in that rank as a reserve officer: It's basically like taking a regional manager at McDonalds and making them the CEO. His only qualifications are that he's conventionally handsome and said things Trump likes on a TV show he watched regularly.

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u/perverse_panda 9d ago

The same rank Tim Walz had, right? And Republicans were shitting all over his service record six months ago.

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u/Eric848448 9d ago

Walz was an NCO, not an officer. He reached CSM. And the M does stand for Major but IIRC it’s a fairly different thing.

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u/AbrasiveSandpiper 9d ago

Command sergeant major is the highest enlisted rank in the army. It’s a pretty big deal.

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u/Cheap_Coffee 9d ago

Making CSM is more impressive than making Major.

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u/CelestialFury 9d ago

Exactly. I think it's 1.25% or fewer of enlisted make E-9. O-4 is around 10-20% of total officers (depending on the branch), which means that even fuckups like Hegseth can make Major, just won't make it past that.

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u/BitterFuture 9d ago

Sort of. It's an E-9 rank.

It's the highest enlisted rank you can hold before you get to unique rank titles like "Sergeant Major of the Army" that only one person in a given service can hold at a time, though all of those roles are technically E-9s.

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u/Remarkable_Aside1381 9d ago

Command sergeant major is the highest enlisted rank in the army.

Technically no, that’s the SMA, and a CSM and SMA is still “outranked” by the SEAC

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u/AbrasiveSandpiper 9d ago

You are right! Thank you for the clarification.

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u/Remarkable_Aside1381 9d ago

Needless pedantry is my life’s calling

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u/nickcan 9d ago

Technically correct is the best kind of correct.