The Memo: Hegseth troubles open up Trump World palace intrigue

President-elect Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to be secretary of Defense was listing badly but had not yet capsized on Wednesday evening.

Hegseth stuck several notes of defiance, penning a Wall Street Journal op-ed and appearing on conservative commentator Megyn Kelly’s radio show vowing to fight on.

But the Journal had, only hours before, carried a report that Trump was considering asking his old rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), to supplant Hegseth as his pick to lead the Pentagon.

Even as Hegseth put a brave face on the state of his nomination fight, Trump issued no social media missives in his defense. 

Meanwhile, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill that Trump had indeed approached DeSantis about the Defense job and that the Florida governor was “seriously considering” the position.

The Trump team, widely reported to have been blindsided by allegations of personal misconduct by Hegseth, is also said to be considering other options too. The Associated Press reported one such possibility was moving Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) from his current nomination to be national security adviser to instead take the helm at the Pentagon.

The stakes are high for every player in the furor — as well as for some on its fringes.

If Hegseth were to ultimately step aside and DeSantis took his place, it would open up a whole range of scenarios.

For a start, the position of Defense secretary would, obviously, position DeSantis himself for another tilt at the presidency once Trump reaches the end of his second and final term at the 2028 election.

He’d join other figures, including Vice President-elect JD Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Trump’s nominee to become secretary of State, as a potential successor to Trump in four years.

Rubio is widely expected to be confirmed, which would open up his Senate seat. The governor of Florida then gets to appoint someone to fill that seat until a new election is held in 2026.

The most dramatic — and speculated-upon — possibility is that the appointee could be Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law. Lara Trump became a co-chair of the Republican National Committee in March.

Such a selection would stir words of outrage from Democrats — but there’s not much they could do about it.

Separately, if DeSantis left the governor's office to lead the Pentagon, this would also elevate the Sunshine State’s current lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nuñez, to the governorship. 

Nuñez was DeSantis’s running mate in 2018, and the two share strongly conservative positions on hot-button social issues — including an opposition to many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Still, those scenarios will only come into view if Hegseth fails to make it to the helm of the Defense Department.

Right now, the omens don’t look good. 

Various GOP senators have expressed some level of doubt about the nominee, from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) saying she is “going to have a lot of questions” to Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) expressing the hope that Hegseth will quit drinking.

Trump has already seen one high-profile nominee crash and burn. 

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) abandoned his quest to become attorney general amid questions about sex with underage girls and illicit drug use. Gaetz denies all such allegations, but there had been considerable speculation that a report into those rumors by the House Ethics Committee would see the light of day, one way or another.

Trump also lost another nominee, though in less contentious circumstances, when Chad Chronister withdrew as his pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency. Chronister framed the pick as his choice, though Trump went on to assert in a social media post that it was related to the nominee’s past actions, as a Florida sheriff, to enforce COVID-19 restrictions.

Still, the loss of Hegseth would be the biggest blow to the president-elect since Gaetz’s withdrawal. The two men were splashy choices by Trump, far better known for their media presence and fondness for MAGA-friendly soundbites than for concrete accomplishments.

The nomination of Hegseth, a former Fox News commentator, hit turbulent water when it emerged that he had faced an allegation of sexual assault over an encounter with a married woman at a California hotel in 2017.

He survived the initial impact of that news, in large part because no charges were ever pressed. 

Hegseth, through a lawyer, insisted the encounter was consensual and that it was the women who had taken the initiative on sexual contact. The lawyer also said Hegseth had later paid the woman as part of a settlement in order to protect his career with Fox News.

However, more allegations have emerged about Hegseth, mostly related to his use of alcohol.

Separately, The New York Times acquired an email Hegseth’s mother wrote to him in 2018. Penelope Hegseth told her son he was “an abuser of women” who “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego.”

His mother also implored Hegseth to “get some help.”

Penelope Hegseth appeared on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday to defend her son, noting that she had retracted the email and apologized to him within a couple of hours of sending it. 

She also appealed to senators to “listen to Pete” and “not listen to the media.”

Pete Hegseth referred to his mother’s Fox News interview during his Megyn Kelly appearance, saying, “I didn't get a chance to see all of it, but God bless my mom. I'm a very different person than I was 10 years ago, than I was 15 years ago.”

Trump’s nominee is going all out to save his nomination and has struck a defiant tone.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Hegseth told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.

In reality, his fate no longer lies in his own hands.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.