Trump's new Fox News Defence Sec wants to lessen restrictions on how US personnel can fight
President-elect Donald Trump has announced his new cabinet and the man he wants to lead the US military's defence will look to ease restrictions on the way they fight, according to one expert.
Dr Gift is the Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre on US Politics (CUSP).
He told BFBS Forces News that Pete Hegseth, the incoming US Secretary for Defense, wants to "revise the rules of engagement" for US personnel.
This will see "significantly less restrictions on how US service members are able to fight in wars", according to Dr Gift.
"He has been very vocal on television saying that US service members are really shackled by the rules of engagement and they can't fight in the way that they need to," he said.
"This is also a message that Donald Trump really advocated during his first administration.
"I think it was in a large part because of what Pete Hegseth was saying.
"Pete Hegseth… almost played this role of what was Donald Trump's, essentially, cable cabinet in his first administration.
"They really had Trump's ear, even more so than Secretary of Defense Mark Esper at the time."
Dr Gift said the incoming Trump administration has been picked on "loyalty above all else", and while he thought Mr Hegseth, who is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, would get an adviser's role, he did not think he would be in the cabinet.
"Loyalty is the main criteria by which he's deciding who to pick for these very crucial cabinet positions," he said.
"To actually give him an official cabinet position is really quite remarkable, especially given that he doesn't have the background that many others in the defense department would.
"A conventional administration would not look to someone like Pete Hegseth," Dr Gift said. "It wouldn't even… be in the orbit of possibilities.
"But with Donald Trump, it's much, much different.
"We've seen with his picks of Vivek Ramasamy and Elon Musk to have this new Department of Government efficiency, he's really, kind of, throwing the old rulebook out and writing his own script."
Who is Pete Hegseth?
The incoming Defense Secretary is a military veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, winning the Bronze Medal twice.
Dr Gift said he is also a Princeton and Harvard graduate, but is best known for his work as an anchor on Fox News' Fox and Friends show.
He added it was clear in Trump's first term that Mr Hegseth had Trump's ear "maybe more so than any other individual inside the Defense Department or out", adding "he became known as Trump's war whisperer".
Dr Gift said Mr Hegseth made a name for himself by coming out "very vociferously for a number of convicted or accused war criminals".
In 2019, then-President Trump pardoned three US service members and, in 2020, he pardoned a number of Blackwater contractors.
"Pete Hegseth was really instrumental in those decisions," he said. "He lobbied for them behind closed doors, and he also lobbied for them on air on Fox News.
"What you have to understand is that during Trump's first term, Fox News and Pete Hegseth, in particular, didn't just act as a kind of de facto state TV in defending Trump's policies.
"They were really a progenitor of the administration's agenda."
He has also previously expressed disdain for the "woke" policies of Pentagon leaders – including its top military officer.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Mr Hegseth could make good on Trump's campaign promises to get rid of US military of generals he has accused of pursuing progressive policies on diversity in the ranks that conservatives have rallied against.
The incoming Defense Secretary also accused the head of the US Air Force of "pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians."
The 44-year-old is also sceptical of Nato and is perhaps Trump's most surprising pick as he fills out his cabinet ahead of his inauguration in January.
He left the military in 2021 after, according to Mr Hegseth, he was sidelined for his political and religious views by an army that didn't want him anymore.
"The feeling was mutual – I didn't want this Army anymore either," Hegseth said in his book The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.
Join Our Newsletter
