A veteran Florida reporter revealed the message Donald Trump wanted to send to his embattled defense nominee Pete Hegseth by floating the name of a high-profile replacement.
Marc Caputo, recently hired away from The Bulwark by Axios, told CNN that the president-elect appears to have been behind rumors that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could be a potential backup pick to lead the Department of Defense if Hegseth's nomination can't be saved from allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct.
"This seems to be a Trump idea, and exactly what he's going for here is unclear," Caputo said. "There's just a bunch of speculation. I'm going to do something dangerous and say some of it, the chief one among Trump's circle of advisers, who largely were cut out of this conversation that Trump had with DeSantis, was that Trump is concerned that Hegseth is not going to cross the finish line."
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"He's got these big plans that he wants to have for the Pentagon, he wants to get the 'woke' out – 'woke' air quotes there – and he also wants to reform it," Caputo added. "He wants to cut some fat and find efficiencies, and if Hegseth can't do it, who does he want? Well, you want someone who's a big personality and someone whom [sic] he believes has the ability to do this sort of thing and has a military record, and DeSantis' name came top of mind. Also, it's a way the floating of DeSantis' name to put pressure on Hegseth to step it up and either get the votes or get out. Hegseth right now is in the process of trying to get the votes, if he doesn't he's going to go the way of Matt Gaetz, and he's going to get out."
The president-elect also had another consideration in his talks with the Florida governor, who will appoint a replacement for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), his nominee for secretary of state.
"I understand, and there's a dispute as to when her name has come up in the discussions between Trump and DeSantis, but Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump is interested in filling that, Marco Rubio's Senate seat, and the two have discussed that," Caputo said. "I've been told now the degree to which that discussion has been real and whether there's an actual trade, not very clear. There are denials [that] there's a trade, but it's difficult to see how these two guys are going to talk about DeSantis coming into the Cabinet, where another Cabinet member has just vacated a Senate seat, Marco Rubio, and the president-elect's daughter-in-law wants the seat."
"So it's certainly come up and there's been chatter about it," he added. "That's what Trump gets out of it. Perhaps he gets more than DeSantis does."
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