Hegseth Brings His Nomination Back from the Brink

Team Trump liked his defiance. They love that he’s a “heatshield” for other controversial nominees.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to reporters after meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on December 5, 2024 in Washington, DC. Hegseth continues to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill as new allegations of alcohol abuse have emerged. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

DONALD TRUMP WANTS HIS CABINET nominees to “earn” their confirmation on their own.

But on Friday, the president-elect went out of his way to give an attaboy to Pete Hegseth just hours after the defense secretary pick scolded reporters who have been hounding him in the U.S. Capitol over accusations of sexual misconduct and drunkenness.

“Pete’s fighting like hell,” Trump told an adviser when he saw the video clip of Hegseth. “He’s a fighter.”

There are few political acts that Trump values more than defiance in the face of media scrutiny. And Hegseth’s charge on Thursday—clearly directed at an audience in Mar-a-Lago—bought him both time and goodwill. After rampant speculation that he could soon drop his nomination, there is little expectation of that now. In fact, Trump’s transition team has settled on two theories for why Hegseth should stay in: time and magnetism.

Aides believe that the longer Hegseth remains in contention for the post, the higher his chances of confirmation will be, simply because it subjects GOP senators to a sustained pressure campaign from the MAGA base, and because many will have a hard time scuttling him in a public vote. Those aides also believe that if Hegseth is drawing fire from critics, there will be less attention and heat on Trump’s other controversial nominees like Kash Patel (FBI), Tulsi Gabbard (director of national intelligence), or Robert Kennedy Jr. (HHS).

“Hegseth is a heatshield,” said a senior Trump adviser. “Pete can take the heat, and that’s better for everyone else.”

An adviser to a Senate Republican put it more bluntly: “Reporters are like flies at a picnic. If you put some food away from the picnic table, the flies will swarm that and leave everyone else alone to eat the barbecue.”

While Hegseth may have bought himself more time from Trump world, the president-elect is also famously prone to changing his mind with little warning. But the more daunting reality he faces is that cabinet confirmations don’t merely revolve around pleasing the audience of one. They’re about gaining the votes of 50 senators in a conference with 53 Republicans; and right now, Hegseth doesn’t have those 50 votes.

In hopes of changing that, Hegseth has headed to Capitol Hill for one-on-one meetings with crucial senators, where he has pleaded his innocence, pledged to teetotal if confirmed, and discussed his plans for overhauling the Defense Department. His presence has caused a media frenzy. And there are few aspects of the job that senators hate as much as swarms of reporters bird-dogging and asking them on camera if they’re going to confirm a nominee accused of salacious behavior. But Trump’s team is hopeful the dam won’t break before senators leave Washington for holiday break December 20.

“This is like any Trump crisis,” said a second senior Trump adviser. “It’s like the beaches of Normandy. Once you survive getting on shore, you go on offense. And you win.”

Behind closed doors, Hegseth has mostly been met with a positive reception, according to aides. But he had a tense discussion with Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and combat-decorated veteran who disliked both Hegseth’s alleged moral failings and his opposition to women serving in combat.

MAGA influencers have launched a social media pressure campaign targeting Ernst by threatening her with a primary if she doesn’t back Hegseth. Ernst is up for reelection in 2026 in a state Trump won by about 13 percentage points. On Friday, Breitbart (the outlet leading the charge to confirm Hegseth) published a guest article by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird saying that Iowans wanted the Senate to confirm all Trump nominees.

For his part, Hegseth has denied the most serious allegations against him: sexual assault and alcoholism. And, while he has admitted he was a thrice-married serial philanderer, he has privately indicated to the senators that the sexual encounter he had with a married woman in 2017 was consensual. His supporters note that he was never criminally charged.

But merely having to present the details of his defense implicates the political maxim that when you’re explaining, you’re losing.

“The best set of facts for Hegseth is he fucked a married woman while he was hammered in his hotel room and she was embarrassed and [she] came up with this story that he drugged her to hide it from her husband,” said an aide to a senator who supports Hegseth’s nomination. “Of course, when he says all that, he has to admit that his latest baby mama was taking care of his kid. And, oh yeah, he knocked her up while cheating on his second wife. And he cheated on his first wife with the second one.”

Even the best spin, in other words, is suboptimal.

Some Trump advisers have referred to Hegseth’s situation as “Gaetz 2.0,” a reference to former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was so dogged by his own sex scandal that he and Trump pulled the plug on his attorney general nomination eight days after he was named. Trump replaced Gaetz with Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who is respected and liked by Republicans. Her confirmation is expected to sail through.

Similarly, Trump floated the possibility of replacing Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who would easily get the required Senate votes.

But unlike Gaetz, Hegseth hasn’t spent years torching Republican senators, and many have embraced him publicly (albeit, not enough have, at least not yet). There’s another important distinction, too: Trump’s transition team muzzled Gaetz with the press while it has allowed Hegseth to defend himself.

“We’ve had two full good days,” an adviser helping Hegseth said. “This guy has been under real fire. He knows that everyday you’re alive you realize you’re already dead. So fuck it.”