Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. It’s executive order-palooza week in Washington.
Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Sen. Tammy Duckworth doesn’t mince her words about Trump’s defense secretary-nominee, a senior Iranian official says Tehran wants to talk, and newly minted Secretary of State Marco Rubio may be packing his bags for Panama.
Trump’s ‘Least Qualified’ Cabinet Nominee
Pete Hegseth, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department, is the “least qualified” out of all the president’s cabinet picks, and his inexperience could put the lives of U.S. service members in danger, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth told SitRep in an interview this week. Duckworth is an Iraq War combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
During a contentious confirmation hearing last week, Democrats on that committee grilled Hegseth, an Army veteran and former Fox News host, on his past remarks that women should not serve in uniform, his drinking habits, and whether he would follow unlawful orders from Trump.
The committee voted on Monday to advance the nomination to the full Senate, and on Thursday, senators voted largely along party lines to end debate on his nomination and proceed to a final confirmation vote, which could take place as soon as Friday or Saturday. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins broke with their party to oppose Hegseth’s nomination in Thursday’s procedural vote.
“While the allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking do nothing to quiet my concerns, the past behaviors Mr. Hegseth has admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces,” Murkowski wrote on X.
The votes come as new allegations are still coming to light about his past conduct. On Tuesday, NBC News reported that Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted a sworn statement to lawmakers in which she said she had witnessed him drink to excess on a number of occasions and heard him make racist and sexist comments, including that women shouldn’t work or vote.
The statement also alleged that Hegseth’s ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, confided in her former sister-in-law that she once hid from her husband in a closet, fearing for her personal safety, and that the two women had established a “code word” in case she needed to escape. Pete Hegseth has strongly denied the allegations.
In a statement to NBC News, Samantha Hegseth said there was no physical abuse in her marriage to Pete Hegseth. “I do not believe your information to be accurate, and I have cc’d my lawyer,” she said in an email response to NBC News.
3 a.m. calls. In our interview with Duckworth, the senator questioned whether Hegseth had the requisite experience to handle contentious conversations with his counterparts from Russia and China.
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Hegseth is not going to be able to ‘aww, shucks’ his way through one of those confrontations. And what’s going to happen is American troops are going to become more vulnerable,” Duckworth said. “We’re talking about the middle-of-the-night 3 a.m. phone call when Chinese fighter jets come within meters of American fighter jets.”
Duckworth voted to confirm Jim Mattis and Mark Esper to serve as defense secretary during the first Trump administration. “I felt that they would not jeopardize our military’s readiness,” she said. “But Mr. Hegesth will jeopardize our readiness simply through his lack of experience.”
Hegseth’s team did not immediately respond to SitRep’s request for comment.
ASEAN who? On the substance of what successive administrations have identified as the primary national security challenge facing the United States—peer competition with China—Duckworth said she was heartened to hear Hegseth speak during his hearing about the Indo-Pacific and Trump’s 2018 National Defense Strategy.
“It gave me an ounce of hope,” said the senator, who asked Hegseth to name a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), what type of agreements they have with the United States, and how many countries were in the grouping. Hegseth said he couldn’t name the exact number of ASEAN nations but referred to U.S. allies South Korea, Japan, and Australia, none of which are members of the bloc.
Receipts. Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee noted with dismay that Hegseth had failed to meet with them prior to the hearing to discuss their concerns about his nomination. Ranking member Jack Reed was the only member of the panel to sit down with Hegseth before the hearing.
Aides to Hegseth have rejected the claim that he refused to meet with Democrats on the committee. “Here’s the thing, I’m a woman of color, and I keep my receipts,” Duckworth said.
Emails between Duckworth’s office and the Trump transition’s team seen by Foreign Policy show a transition official proposing that Hegseth meet with Duckworth on Jan. 15—the day after his confirmation hearing.
Let’s Get Personnel
The latest Trump nominations:
- Penny Schwinn, deputy education secretary
- Matthew Lohmeier, Air Force undersecretary
Confirmed by the Senate:
- Marco Rubio, secretary of state
Trump hasn’t been in office a full week yet, but there have already been a number of notable firings and departures. The president fired Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan. Trump also said he dismissed Brian Hook, his former Iran envoy, from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; chef José Andrés from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition; retired Gen. Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council; and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council.
It was also announced that Vivek Ramaswamy was departing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to pursue a run for governor in Ohio. His exit was reportedly linked to disagreements with Elon Musk, who will now be DOGE’s sole leader.
Meanwhile, roughly 160 National Security Council staffers have been sidelined and told to work from home as the Trump administration conducts a review of staffing to ensure it lines up with the president’s agenda, per The Associated Press.
On the Button
What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.
Iran wants to talk. A top Iranian official signaled that Tehran is interested in sitting down at the negotiation table with the new Trump administration while pushing against the notion that the Islamic Republic is pursuing a nuclear bomb.
“There’s always hope that people will choose rationality. I hope that this time around, a ‘Trump 2’ will be more serious, more focused, more realistic,” Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Zarif, a former foreign minister who played a central role in talks over the 2015 nuclear deal, added: “We can move forward based on opportunity rather than based on threats. So let’s talk about that.” The veteran diplomat also said that if Iran “wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done so a long time ago.”
Rubio heading to Panama. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to travel to Panama in late January, in what will mark his first foreign trip since becoming the top U.S. diplomat.
Rubio, who is expected to prioritize Latin America in his new role, is poised to visit Panama as Trump pushes for the United States to regain control of the Central American country’s canal. Trump has dangled the possibility of using military force to accomplish this, despite pledging “no new wars” on the campaign trail.
Panama has not taken kindly to Trump’s rhetoric on the canal. “The Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama,” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said in Davos this week.
More troops to the border. Trump is not wasting time when it comes to cracking down on immigration. The Pentagon on Wednesday announced that 1,500 active-duty troops are being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border, joining the 2,500 soldiers already stationed there.
Trump on Monday declared a national emergency at the southern border, stating that U.S. sovereignty was “under attack.” The president also signed an executive order calling on the Defense Department to come up with a plan to “seal the borders.” Migrant encounters at the border steadily declined over the course of 2024 and into the new year, but Trump maintains that the United States is facing an “invasion.”
Snapshot
What We’re Reading
The Washington Post obtained documents from the office of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee to serve as director of national intelligence, that reveal new details about her 2017 trip to Syria where she met with the country’s then-ruler, Bashar al-Assad—twice, according to the Post’s reporting.
Assad wasn’t her only controversial sit-down on the trip. “Gabbard had met with a Syrian cleric who had threatened to activate a network of suicide bombers in the United States and Europe if Western countries militarily intervened in Syria,” the Post reported, according to one of the documents.
In response to questions from the Post, Trump transition spokesperson Alexa Henning called its story on Gabbard a “Deep State smear campaign filled with gross misrepresentation and conjecture.”
Put On Your Radar
Sunday, Jan. 26: Belarus holds a presidential election.
A 60-day deadline for Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon under its cease-fire deal with Hezbollah ends.
Tuesday, Jan. 28: The Israeli ban on operations by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees goes into effect.
Quote of the Week
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, said Tuesday during the inaugural prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral, in a direct appeal to attendee Trump to show compassion for immigrants and the LGBTQ community. Her comments drew Trump’s ire, and he called on Budde to apologize. She refused.
This Week’s Most Read
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Police in Greece are investigating how a 2,000-year-old headless statue ended up in a garbage bag near some trash cans in the town of Thessaloniki. A 32-year-old local man discovered the statue, which is also armless, and reported it to police. The statue dates back to the Hellenistic period, which occurred between 323 B.C. and 31 B.C.
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