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Politics|Trump Supporters Go All In for Pete Hegseth With Money and Coordination
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/politics/pete-hegseth-defense-secretary-trump.html
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Conservative organizations are targeting Republican senators, saying that they will pay a price if they do not back the president-elect’s choice for defense secretary.
- Jan. 13, 2025, 2:46 p.m. ET
As Pete Hegseth prepares for confirmation hearings, a coalition of outside groups is pressuring Republican senators to confirm him as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s secretary of defense — or face daunting political fallout it they do not.
Mr. Hegseth, a military veteran and former television anchor, has been grappling with a variety of damaging accusations — including bouts of heavy drinking, financial mismanagement and sexual assault — that critics are using to question his fitness for the post. At the same time, he has also been dogged by concerns that he lacks the management experience needed to manage a Defense Department with a budget of more than $800 billion and nearly three million employees.
Mr. Trump has so far stood by Mr. Hegseth, encouraging him to fight the allegations over his past conduct. Mr. Hegseth has denied that he committed sexual assault, saying the encounter with the complainant in 2017, was consensual. He said he was a victim of a smear campaign. A phalanx of well-financed groups that back Mr. Trump and his cabinet picks, including popular podcasters and political advocacy groups, say Mr. Hegseth is the right person for the job and have helped make his political survival a cause célèbre.
Some of those efforts are being coordinated with senior advisers to Mr. Trump, according to several people who are involved and who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss strategy.
A Trump transition official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The concerted push is a sharp departure from Mr. Trump’s first administration, when his outside supporters’ efforts were often scattershot and underfunded.
This time around, backers of Mr. Trump and his agenda are “pretty coordinated,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump White House adviser whose podcast, “War Room,” has talked up Mr. Hegseth and other cabinet picks.
