President-elect Donald Trump’s idea of naming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a potential backup pick to lead the Department of Defense reportedly fell apart because nobody in his inner circle got behind the idea, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said.
And a call from former Fox News host Pete Hegseth persuaded Trump to allow him to make the case for his defense secretary nomination in the media and on Capitol Hill as allegations of public drunkenness and sexual assault piled up – and produced negative headlines that angered the incoming president, Haberman added.
“I think it's still true that he was tired and is tired of negative stories,” the Times reporter told CNN’s John Berman on Friday. “And what changed was a couple of things: Trump could not find a single person in his orbit – or even really outside of it – who liked this idea of making Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, the defense secretary choice.”
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The reporter, who has covered Trump extensively for years, said during her CNN interview on “AC360” that the option to launch a new search with multiple candidates never emerged.
“It was Hegseth or DeSantis at that point,” Haberman said. “And so, Trump was persuaded, also after a call from Pete Hegseth, to let Hegseth go out and see if he could fight his way past some of these stories.”
Hegseth at that point had been hit with “one negative headline after another alleging problematic behavior across a broad spectrum,” Haberman added, and “had been basically a death – or near death by a thousand cuts.”
But Hegseth’s nomination path has also been aided by MAGA forces in recent weeks, Haberman noted.
“You saw this movement most significantly, John, this conservative now MAGA movement, really – really activated online on digital ads, making a target specifically of Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa to try to get her to a ‘yes.’”
Haberman added that she doesn’t believe there’s a “plan B” nominee to replace Hegseth and added that Trump’s transition team is “feeling vastly better about it today than they did a week ago.”
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