Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, faced some tough questions from Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Pete Hegseth, military analyst at Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. and US secretary of defense nominee for US President-elect Donald Trump, during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Kent Nishimura)

Conservatives erupted Tuesday on social media following an exchange between Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth and freshman Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., regarding gender identity.

Senators vetting Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary received an affidavit from a former sister-in-law alleging his second wife feared for her safety.

Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats are fuming as Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Pentagon, is set to head back to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for his

Hegseth, 44, is a combat veteran and former Fox News host. The committee voted along party lines to advance his nomination to the full Senate.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) reaffirmed his pressure on President-elect Trump’s Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth and said he asked tough questions last week because his Republican colleagues needed to hear the answers.

Amid Republican claims of “anonymous smears,” a named person — and a Hegseth, at that — accuses the defense secretary nominee of abusive behavior.

In President Donald Trump’s first television interview in the Oval Office since returning to the White House, he told Fox News he “might have to” cut funding for sanctuary cities, rebuffed concerns over TikTok and criticized Biden’s pardons.

Political polarization in the U.S. is at the highest level ever measured. Growing majorities of both Republicans and Democrats say they consider members of the other party to be unintelligent, dishonest and immoral .

Daily on Defense: 10,000 troops destined for border, Hegseth vote expected today, Houthis redesignated terrorists, Judges recoil at revisionist Jan. 6 history.