How Trump’s Cabinet picks could shake up the old world order

Within minutes of President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth as his selection for Secretary of Defense, current and former senior military commanders began messaging and calling me with their reactions. “Ridiculous,” said one. “An effing (euphemism inserted) nightmare,” said another. To be clear, these were not partisans, but senior commanders who have served under both Presidents Trump and Joe Biden.

Within minutes of President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth as his selection for secretary of Defense, current and former senior military commanders began messaging and calling me with their reactions. “Ridiculous,” said one. “An effing (euphemism inserted) nightmare,” said another. To be clear, these were not partisans, but senior commanders who have served under both Presidents Trump and Joe Biden. Their critiques, as they continued, were not personal. None had anything negative to say about Hegseth. Their central concern is that they see Trump, with this and other senior national security appointments, building out a team to put into action massive and lasting changes to US foreign policy. “There’s no serious experience in the business of running the Pentagon or the national security staff processes, but I’m trying to retain an open mind and hope that fresh ideas could improve things that get pretty stale,” a retired four-star general told me. “That said, the common denominator is clearly loyalty and while some loyalty is essential, slavish fealty is dangerous. Looking at all the announcements to date, we could end up with one mind controlling many hands. And I’ve never believed that one mind, any mind, does that as well as diversity of thought.” The 2024 election - unlike previous ones with differences at the margins - may prove to have an enormous impact not just on US foreign policy but on America’s role in the world. Trump has repeatedly expressed that he’s ready to deliver on his “America First” agenda, ending US entanglements abroad and diminishing or altering treaty relationships he sees as skewed against American interests, each a departure from what used to be a bipartisan worldview. To that point, Hegseth has from his perch at Fox News long been a vocal, public proponent of Trump’s “America First” agenda. Trump, as in domestic politics, has demonstrated a transactional view of US relations abroad - and one that often fails to differentiate based on values or shared history. He’s repeatedly communicated that he sees the US as no better or worse than its adversaries. There is a common thread between Trump’s answer to Bill O’Reilly in 2017 when the then-Fox News host reminded him, “Putin is a killer”, to which Trump answered, “You think we’re so innocent?” and his comment at a rally in Michigan during the last week of the 2024 campaign that “In many cases, our allies are worse than our so-called enemies.” With this view of America’s relationships with allies and adversaries, Trump seems to believe that as president he will be just as able to make mutually beneficial agreements for the US with, say, Russia or China, as with US allies in Europe and Asia – that is, with nations that have fought alongside the US and signed mutual defense treaties.