Pete Hegseth’s nomination is a hill Trump should die on

The Washington GOP establishment’s opposition to Pete Hegseth serving as President Trump’s secretary of defense has nothing to do with the unsubstantiated allegations against Hegseth and everything to do with resistance to Trump’s plans to reform the Department of Defense and end America’s involvement in endless foreign wars that are so beloved by the establishment.

That’s why Hegseth’s nomination is a hill Trump should die on. If a handful of Senate Republicans can sink Hegseth, they will spend the next four years undermining and obstructing Trump’s entire agenda. Trump needs to send them a message that such obstruction won’t be tolerated in his second term. Now is the time for the president-elect to make them understand that if they oppose his nominees, they’ll be putting their political careers in jeopardy.

Republican senators like Joni Ernst of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who purport to be concerned about Hegseth because of alleged wrongdoing in his past, are just being dishonest. Their real objection is not with Hegseth but with Trump’s plans and his policies, especially his foreign policy.