Pete Hegseth has officially been sworn in as Defense Secretary, with all seven of his children watching on.Â
Hegseth swore an oath of office beside Vice President JD Vance in front of his wife and children.Â
The US Senate narrowly confirmed the former Fox News co-host as being the Pentagon Chief on Friday.Â
Speaking after the swearing in, Hegseth thanked President Trump and described the job as an ‘honor of a lifetime’.
He added: ‘We look forward to having the backs of our troops in executing peace through strength, in putting America first and improving our military.’
Hegseth also thanked Vance for ‘breaking the tie’ in backing his appointment after his vote was the deciding ballot.
The 44-year-old added: ‘There was so many folks on this inside and allies on the outside who stood by us.
‘I want to thank the warfighters, I want to thank the men and women wearing the uniform.Â
‘Every time I stand at a podium the first thing that goes through my head are the guys I served with on the battlefield.’
‘We will put America first, we will bring peace through strength. The three principles I talked about are what we will bring to that Pentagon.
‘Restore the warrior ethos in everything we do, rebuild our military and reestablish deterrents, we don’t want to fight wars. We want to end them responsibly.’
He added: ‘If we need to fight them, we are going to bring overwhelming and decisive force to destroy the enemy and to bring our boys home.’
Hegseth is Donald Trump’s most controversial confirmation so far and he was skating on thin ice before getting a passing vote from senators Friday.Â
Directly after Trump announced Hegseth’s nomination in November the candidate was dogged with allegations, including drinking issues, sexual misconduct and poor business judgement.Â
The father of seven denies wrongdoing in those instances, and he credits God and his third wife Jennifer for helping him change course. ‘I’m not perfect,’ he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee as his wife sat directly behind her husband in a show of support.
But in the past 24 hours just ahead of his final confirmation multiple Republicans turned their backs on Trump’s nominee and said they would not vote for him.
Despite this, Hegseth was confirmed into the Pentagon’s top job – proving that Donald Trump’s MAGA mandate has overcome even the most skeptical senators.
Hegseth did not win over all Republicans, however. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska revealed they would not back the candidate, in part due to the scandals hanging over him.
Mitch McConnell also voted against Hegseth, and in a strange scene was seen celebrating with Democrats following the vote despite their loss.Â
McConnell, who is hawkish on U.S. defense and foreign policy, had voted earlier this week to advance the nomination to the floor but was a no on confirmation.Â
In a statement, McConnell wrote that ‘In public comments and testimony before the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Hegseth did not reckon with this reality.’Â
Following his confirmation, Trump said that ‘winning is what matters’ after the rare tiebreaker inside the Senate.Â
Trump was on the tarmac at LAX after visiting the California wildfires Friday, when he was asked his thoughts on the confirmation after saying he’d spoken to Hegseth.
‘We just heard that we have a great Secretary of Defense, we’re very happy about that and we appreciate everybody’s vote,’ Trump said under the noise of Air Force One.
When asked about McConnell’s ‘no’ vote, which Trump had jokingly predicted earlier in the day, the president responded: ‘I didn’t know that, I just know that we won.’
When pressed again on McConnell’s vote, he once again said he didn’t know that it had happened and repeated: ‘I just heard that we won. Winning is what matters, right?’
Another reporter asked if Trump was worried if Hegseth only getting 50 votes was a predictor of potential trouble for more of the president’s nominees.
‘No, I’m honored to have Pete, I think Pete’s going to be a great Secretary of Defense.’
