The hosts of Fox & Friends were apparently just as surprised as everybody else to learn that Donald Trump had chosen their colleague Pete Hegseth as his next defense secretary.
The president-elect announced his eyebrow-raising nomination on Truth Social Tuesday, describing Hegseth—an Army veteran and now-former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host—as “tough, smart and a true believer in America first.” The decision was met with widespread bewilderment even among GOP lawmakers.
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On Wednesday morning’s Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy said he heard the news when he saw that his own son Peter—also a Fox News star—was being talked about on Twitter as a potential press secretary in the forthcoming Trump White House.
“That’s just so funny to me because it’s like, come on,” Doocy said, remarking on the apparent absurdity of one of his network colleagues being given such a senior role in the administration for which they have no experience. “And then I saw this thing: Pete Hegseth has been named the nominee for [...] secretary of defense, and I thought: ‘Well, is that real?’
He added that the news “essentially caught Washington totally off guard,” specifically: “Pete Hegseth—the guy on the couch—is Donald Trump’s selection to be the secretary of defense!”
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt then read out a list of Hegseth’s apparently relevant credentials for the role of running the Pentagon, including his service in Iraq and Afghanistan and his time as a “guard at GITMO,” better known as Guantánamo Bay.
Lawrence Jones added that Hegseth had also obtained degrees from Princeton and Harvard and was the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America—a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers. “Of course he was 10 years here at the Fox News channel,” Jones added.
“He just finished an entire book taking on the military, the wokeness in the military, and what’s been going on in the military,” Jones went on, referring to Hesgeth’s bestseller The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. “Always been a friend of the former president, and [Trump] wants someone to go in there that’s going to clean it up and focus on the mission, which is to keep Americans safe.”
“[Hegseth] knows Iraq, he knows Afghanistan,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said in his defense of the president-elect’s wisdom. “The other thing he knows is Israel, and he’s been there like seven, eight times, done multiple specials there, and has a real passion for the region and understanding of the challenges in the West Bank and Gaza, not just on pro-Israel.”
Kilmeade added that Hegseth is, in his view, a “fascinating pick.”
“You don’t realize how qualified he is until you really look at the résumé,” he added.
Jones followed up by saying anyone doubting Hegseth’s intelligence need only refer to his ability to identify countries. “Any time we have a foreign conflict, look at him at a map,” Jones said. “He knows all the regions very well, and sheds light.”
