REPORT: Ron DeSantis Floated As Possible Replacement For Key Trump Nomination

President-elect Donald Trump is giving serious consideration to replacing one of his biggest nominees with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a one-time rival for the presidency who has since become a staunch public defender in the press.

The New York Post reported that Trump is mulling asking Pete Hegseth to withdraw his nomination for defense secretary, according to sources familiar with the Republican’s thinking. The embattled former Fox News host may be unable to recover from a devastating series of mainstream news stories alleging he fostered sexually aggressive workplaces while in charge of several charitable veterans organizations. The move, sources said, could come as soon as Wednesday, the same day that Hegseth’s mother took to “Fox & Friends” to downplay a 2018 letter she sent him questioning his womanizing ways.

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Heading the U.S. Department of Defense requires confirmation by the full U.S. Senate, a prospect that appears more and more unlikely given the number of defectors within the Republican caucus — at least six, according to the Wall Street Journal — and particularly among female senators. Already, Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have expressed deep reservations about Hegseth in light of the two stories. The first, as reported by the New Yorker, included salacious details about an alcohol-fueled series of encounters with Hegseth, according to former employees, one of whom claimed he separated female staffers into the categories of “party girls” and “not party girls.” Another accused the 44-year-old of rape after a sexual encounter that he maintains was consensual.

On Tuesday the story took on fresh legs with a report that his mother, Penelope Hegseth, previously admonished her son for his behavior in a 2018 letter where she expressed her anger over his treatment toward his ex-wife Samantha during their 2018 divorce. In a last-ditch bid to stanch the bleeding, Penelope Hegseth took to “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning to denounce the New York Times for “threatening” her by demanding she comment on the letter before the story ran. She insisted, and the paper reported, that she retracted some of her statements in the letter just hours later, and on Wednesday she confirmed that she and her son “patched things up” immediately.

DeSantis, a member of the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps, was reportedly on Trump’s shortlist for the post before he met with Hegseth, according to sources who spoke with the Journal. They cautioned that the ever-mercurial former president could change his mind if Hegseth’s nomination were to fail while DeSantis, 46, has been presented with the idea by his advisors. The two men were last together on Tuesday at a memorial service in Palm Beach County, Florida honoring fallen police officers.

Trump considers replacing Pete Hegseth with Ron DeSantis as Defense secretary pick: report https://t.co/tIGepRuqe3 pic.twitter.com/7PEA2fa3zU

— New York Post (@nypost) December 4, 2024

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