The Pentagon faces an uncertain future with Trump

President-elect Donald Trump has been busy selecting potential Cabinet nominees, and there is perhaps no more consequential choice than the person he has nominated to run the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth. Trump has pledged to undertake a vast yet controversial overhaul of the federal government, and the Defense Department is no exception. This has some ranking members at the Pentagon worried about the next phase of America's defense policy with Hegseth as defense secretary.

Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and Army National Guard veteran, was close to Trump during his first term and emerged as a strong loyalist to the former (and now future) president. But his selection as defense secretary reportedly caught even Trump's closest allies off guard, and many are calling Hegseth unqualified for the job; It "appears that one of the main criteria that's being used is, how well do people defend Donald Trump on television?" Eric Edelman, the Pentagon's top policy official in the Bush administration, said to Politico. And a defense industry lobbyist offered another assessment to Politico, asking, "Who the fuck is this guy?" Hegseth has also been accused of sexual assault; he has denied these allegations but admitted to paying his accuser.

With Hegseth at the helm, he could determine how American military spending, defense policy and foreign policy are determined for the foreseeable future — or even whether soldiers are deployed on American streets.

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A 'rapid erosion' of the military

The "greatest danger the military faces" from Trump's second term is a "rapid erosion of its professionalism, which would undermine its status and respect from the American people," Richard Kohn, a military historian and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said to The Washington Post. Trump "does not have a real understanding of civil-military relations, or the importance of a nonpartisan, nonpolitical military." Similar concerns have been raised about Hegseth.

Trump "boosted the Pentagon's budget, pressed U.S. allies to spend more on their own defense and loosened battlefield restrictions," when he was president, said Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan and Alex Horton at the Post. But the nature of Trump's first term meant Pentagon officials were often "flat-footed," and Trump "left them scrambling to discern what exactly Trump wanted."

Trump also has "wide latitude to interpret the law and U.S. troops cannot disobey legal orders they consider to be morally wrong," Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali said at Reuters. There is a "widespread public misperception that the military can choose not to obey immoral orders. And that's actually not true," Kori Schake, a member of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, said to Reuters. There will be an "enormous chaos premium in a second Trump term, both because of the policies he will attempt to enact and the people he will put in place to enact them."

Trump may focus more on non-combat aspects

Trump and Hegseth may choose to focus less on deploying the military and more on its cultural issues. The president-elect has previously pledged to purge the military of "wokeism," a sentiment echoed by Hegseth. The "abortion issue is going to be a big one for both the DOD and the VA," Leo Shane III, the deputy editor of the Military Times, said to "PBS NewsHour."

Trump "banned the recruiting and the enlisting of transgender individuals into the military," said Shane. He didn't kick people out who were already enlisted, but "would not let new ones join. Would not be a surprise to see him put that back in place," along with similar recruiting blocks.

These issues have also come to the forefront with Hegseth, and this will likely continue if he is confirmed as defense secretary. He has "made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is opposed to 'woke' programs that promote equity and inclusion," Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp said at The Associated Press. And while Hegseth has also "said diversity in the military is a strength, he said it was because minority and white men can perform similarly but the same isn't true for women."