Trump considering Ron DeSantis as replacement for Pete Hegseth: Reports

amid the growing controversy over Pete heth's nomination as defense secretary The Wall Street Journal and the bull workk are reporting that president-elect Trump is weighing whether to replace him with Florida Governor Ron de santis both Outlets site people familiar with the discussions NBC News has not independently confirmed the reporting but this comes amid increasing concerns from some Republican lawmakers over the mounting allegations concerning hegf personal life people close to the president-elect's team tell the general Trump allies believe heth's nomination may not survive further scrutiny as the paper notes picking DeSantis would amount to a stunning

turn for Trump but in santis Trump has a well-known conservative with both military and executive experience who shares Trump's and hexa's view on eliminating the so-called woke policies from the Armed Forces joining us now the reporter who broke the story from the bullwark markk Caputo Mark what more can you tell us um is this imminent um are there are there any other catches that could hold this up well I was told it was a really serious conversation they've been having and they've been having it for a while and it's not Donald Trump's people talking to

Ronda Santa's people it's Donald Trump talking to Ronda santis about it I got to say having covered both of these guys having covered the Republican primary it's really kind of hard to see this happening but I've been assured and was reporting it out yesterday that no no this could really happen uh it's not just that Pete hegseth has these problems it's that Donald Trump is serious not just about getting the you know the woke out of the military is that he believes that there's a certain amount of bloat and understandably so and perhaps a certain

amount of fat that needs to be cut from The Pentagon budget and you're going to need to someone need someone who is able to do that and withstand the political pressure and there's one thing whether you dislike Ronda santis or you like Ronda santis that most people agree on is that Des santis is very stubborn and when he sets his mind to doing something he does it and he doesn't care about who howls so if and it's still an if and perhaps a big if Ronda sandis is appointed to be the dod secretary the defense

secretary yeah he's going to pursue these social policies but there is a strong possibility on being told that he'll actually try to really cut some of that Pentagon budget which has a lot of propagate spending in it you know um Jonathan omir you've reported on Donald Trump for a very long time uh and and understand uh you these stories started coming out about his uh about heit's drinking problems and we we've heard it over and over again um and in fact uh we had heard there's an NBC report talking about how numerous people inside of

Fox News say that he still has a drinking problem he still shows up drunk he still shows up uh uh smelling of alcohol we had actually uh heard that from uh our team had heard that from a source inside of Fox News a reliable source inside of Fox News last week that you know they're saying you don't have to talk about 2018 this is still happening and that was a real concern that people inside the Trump transition had also been hearing so I'd heard last week and I know you had too from my sources inside

the the Senate that the Republicans were already going south on this guy last week then his mother's letter hit this weekend uh that that actually lined up with what we've heard from so many of these accusations about that his behavior and his drunkenness when he was running the two vets organizations now the Fox news story has come out but again that the Fox news story that NBC's reporting is no shock to the Trump transition team they were already hearing it from inside Fox himself so given what Donald Trump's always said about alcohol about his brother

about uh uh the lack of discipline he Even's written about it I you know hard to say how Pete heith gets through this and hard to see especially when Lindsey Graham is saying there are a lot of concerns one Senate Insider laughingly told me Lindsay's a lagging indicator this was done some time ago talk about it yeah a few things here first that NBC news story that suggest that Heth would show up on sat at Fox smelling of alcohol one of the reporters behind that story Courtney K be joining us uh in a few minutes

but first of all you're right to underline Donald Trump's distaste for alcohol he has said repeatedly he has never drank in his life he he blames it for the death of his brother someone he cared uh about uh deeply um he also judges harshly people who he thinks drink too much let's remember Rudy Giuliani lost a cabinet Post in after the 2016 election in part because Trump saw him drinking too much so that's these reports are not going to help heg set's case now heg Seth himself yes Joe I heard from Republicans yesterday as well

even as heg has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill that his nomination is in deep danger there could be up to six or more Republican Senators you only need four uh who are ready to sink uh his nomination including Lindsey Graham who normally goes along with whatever Trump wants Heth appearing on Fox later today uh for an interview which is a sense maybe a Las ditch effort to save that nomination but he's got an uphill climb and Willie if it ends up being Governor D santis certainly this is a one-time rival of Trumps but

just like Marco Ruby a one-time Florida politician rival of Trump trump has improved relations with the STIs at least somewhat and I'm already told in this morning Republicans say like the sandis would clear through the Republican stand he's got relationships on the Hill from his time in Congress he was already been sort of publicly vetted for his runs for governor as well as of course his ill- fated presidential bid and they he does not appear to have the baggage uh that hex does and then opening another big position in the State of Florida if that

happens you have the Senate with Marco Rubio you got governor's office uh with potentially now Ronda santis as well let's get