On Tuesday, Nov. 12, soon-to-be President Donald Trump, who’s been announcing this week his nominees for various positions in his new administration, said he has chosen Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as secretary of defense for the United States.

Before taking a job as a Fox News host a decade ago, Hegseth served in the Army National Guard – with tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

He later joined Fox News, where, for the last decade, he has been best known for co-hosting “Fox & Friends Weekend” – the network’s weekend morning show.

Assuming his confirmation hits no hurdles, he will soon be running what many political experts consider one of the 10 most important jobs in the world, a department with an annual budget of about $850 billion.

Hegseth will take the place of current Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin III, who was named to that job in January of 2021.

Austin, a West Point graduate and four-star general, has four-plus decades of military service in the Army – including command positions at the corps, division, battalion and brigade levels; and Austin was awarded the Silver Star for actions he took leading the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division as part of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Austin later oversaw all combat operations in Iraq and he concluded his active military service as the Commander of US Central Command, which was responsible for all military operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan. In that capacity, he spearheaded America’s battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Like Austin, Hegseth soon will have a critical and central role: The safety, security, and defense of the United States of America – and he will have an enormous amount of managerial responsibility as well. As the Secretary of Defense, Hegseth will advise Trump on all aspects of the Department of Defense and on keeping America safe from foreign threats.

He will also serve on the National Security Council.

In addition to his military service, before joining Fox News, Hegseth was the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America – a veteran advocacy organization.

Hegseth, who graduated from Princeton before getting a master’s degree from Harvard, will soon oversee the department that employs nearly 3 million people – including 1.4  million active-duty service members – and the department that is thought to be the number 2 employer in the entire world.

In his new role, Hegseth will oversee the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.

In addition, the agencies under him will be the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – better known as “DARPA – the Defense Logistics Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Health Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, the Space Development Agency and many other defense-related agencies.

The Secretary of Defense is also responsible for administering multi-billion dollar contracts for the Department of Defense.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump praised Hegseth and explained how he chose him. Trump said that Hegseth, in his years of work on Fox News, used his “platform to fight for our Military and Veterans.”

Trump also stated that Hegseth was “tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”

“With Pete at the helm,” Trump posted, “America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.”

Once Hegseth, 44, is confirmed, he will be the third youngest person to ever serve as Secretary of Defense. (Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took the position when he was 43, and Robert McNamara was 44 when he took the job– just three days younger than Hegseth.

In a public statement, Fox News said Hegseth would be missed by Fox staff and viewers.

“Pete Hegseth has been an exceptional host on FOX & Friends and FOX Nation and a best-selling author for FOX News Books for nearly a decade,” a November 12 statement from the media outlet read.

“His insights and analysis especially about the military resonated deeply with our viewers and made the program the major success that it is today. We are extremely proud of his work at Fox News Media and wish him the best of luck in Washington.”

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