A Princeton and Harvard-educated former combat veteran, Hegseth went on to make a career at Fox News, where he hosted a weekend show. Trump tapped him as the defense secretary to lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

With his confirmation at stake, Pete Hegseth is working the phones ahead of a Senate vote to shore up support to become the nation’s defense secretary. The Senate late Friday