'Outmaneuvered': Ex-Trump aide makes prediction about how new defense pick will backfire

A former White House aide to Donald Trump criticized his choice to lead the Department of Defense and predicted that decision would end badly for both of them.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House director of strategic communications and now co-hosts "The View," questioned the president-elect's decision to nominate Fox New weekend host Pete Hegseth to oversee the Pentagon, even as she agreed it could use fresh leadership.

"The concern over Pete Hegseth as [secretary of defense] isn’t that he’s on TV or that he lacks of military experience – he doesn’t, he’s a decorated veteran," Griffin said. "My concern is his a lack of policy experience and a lack of Pentagon experience. On Day One he’ll oversee 3 million people. The Pentagon is the largest workforce in America."

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Hegseth's lack of bureaucratic and leadership experience will put him at a serious disadvantage against the military officials he'll be overseeing, Griffin said.

"I’m for a disrupter at the Pentagon but you can’t disrupt an agency you’re not familiar with the inner workings of," Griffin said. "The most likely outcome is he’ll be outmaneuvered at every turn by top Pentagon brass."

Griffin suggested that Trump should have nominated someone who had already served in the Pentagon or gained relevant experience as a member of Congress, saying that Hegseth's two decades of service in the National Guard simply wasn't enough to prepare him to stand off against high-ranking military officers.

"Men with far more experience than Pete Hegseth have been outmaneuvered by [four-star generals] and the Joint Chiefs in the past," Griffin said. "If Trump’s goal is to have a DOD more responsive to his priorities, which be has every right to, he should go with a loyalist with direct Pentagon or [House Armed Services Committee/ Senate Armed Services Committee] experience."

"[Sen.] Joni Ernst (R-IA) would have been a very smart pick," Griffin added. "She knows how every inch of the Pentagon operates, she’s been involved in the appropriation process, and she would represent Trump’s interests, while commanding the respect of top DOD brass."