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Who could be the Pentagon’s No. 2 in a Pete Hegseth DOD?
Two seasoned Defense Department insiders are in the running to be the Pentagon’s No. 2, and names of other possible nominees are swirling as the Trump transition team looks to fill top posts in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Potential nominees for deputy defense secretary include former Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie and former Pentagon No. 2 David Norquist — both veterans of President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration.
Blue Light News spoke with seven people who were granted anonymity to discuss deliberations within the Trump team. As with all things, nothing is certain until Trump makes his decision, and as his surprise pick of Fox News personality and Army veteran Pete Hegseth proved, there are plenty of known unknowns when trying to peer into the crystal ball of his inner circle.
Wilkie, who is leading Trump’s transition effort at DOD, is in the mix for deputy defense secretary, according to three people familiar with the talk inside the transition team.
Wilkie already enjoys some support on Capitol Hill. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who employed Wilkie as a Senate aide, said he was unaware as to whether Wilkie was in the mix for the job but said he’d be “a huge get, him being in that role, maybe being a mentor and adviser,” to Hegseth.
“I hope right now that he’s being considered for a Cabinet-level post,” Tillis said.
Also being mentioned to take the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian job is David Norquist, a longtime Washington DOD official who also served in the role for the last two years of Trump’s first term, as well as being the department’s chief financial officer in that administration. He is the president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association, a defense industry trade group.
The trade group’s spokesperson, Rachel Sutherland, said she had no insight into “Norquist’s intentions or any considerations he may have regarding a potential position with the new administration.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team, declined to discuss the specific nominees.
The deputy secretary performs the crucial role of overseeing the Defense Department’s day-to-day operations. But the job could take on even greater significance if Hegseth, who does not have Defense Department experience beyond his National Guard service, is confirmed.
The Trump transition team has yet to sign a memorandum of understanding to get presidential transition planning underway with the Pentagon, spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on Monday. Officials in the building are ready and waiting to work with the Trump transition staff, she added.
Also in the mix for other military roles:
- Defeated U.S. Senate candidate Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain, has also been floated for multiple roles, including deputy secretary and Navy secretary, two people said. Cao served as an explosive ordnance officer in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia before running for office. Cao would seem to fit with the incoming Trump administration’s push to combat “wokeness” in the military.
- Rep. Mike Garcia, who was narrowly defeated in a bid to retain his battleground California House seat, is also a contender for Navy secretary, two people close to the transition said. A former F/A-18 fighter pilot who flew more than 30 combat missions during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Garcia has hewed to hawkish defense positions, chastising fellow Republicans for blocking last year’s $826 billion Pentagon spending bill. .
- Rep. Ronny Jackson, a retired Navy captain and sitting Texas lawmaker who became close to Trump as his chief medical adviser during his first administration, has also been floated for Navy secretary, according to two people. His appointment would be tricky as it would further cut into the narrow Republican margin in the House, though picking Jackson would give Trump a fierce loyalist in the Navy’s top job. Jackson initially retired as a rear admiral, but he was later demoted due to the results of a DOD Inspector General investigation into his conduct as White House physician.
- John Phelan, a Florida-based private investor and a major donor to Trump, has also been mentioned as a potential Navy secretary candidate, three people said. One of the people added that the wealthy financier did not specifically ask for the role, but that it was floated within Trump’s camp.
- Former Rep. Chris Stewart is in the mix to be Trump’s Air Force secretary, according to one person familiar with the process. Stewart is a former Air Force officer, piloted the B-1B bomber and holds three world records for his flights. The Utah Republican was an appropriator and senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, where he was a solid defender of Trump during the panel’s role in the former president’s first impeachment related to his dealing with Ukraine.
- Over at the Army, Chris Miller — the former acting defense secretary in Trump’s tumultuous final weeks in office — has been mentioned as a possible nominee, one person said. Miller, a retired Army Special Forces colonel, also served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center before being elevated to acting secretary when Trump fired Mark Esper. Miller would be a controversial pick, given his leadership during the Jan. 6 riots and his often gregarious tell-it-like-it-is demeanor.
- Dan Driscoll, a North Carolina businessman and Yale law school classmate of Vice President-elect JD Vance, has also been mentioned as a potential Army secretary nominee, one person said. Driscoll served as a second lieutenant in the Army and deployed to Iraq. He ran unsuccessfully for a House seat in North Carolina in 2020 on a national security-based platform that included support for Trump’s border wall with Mexico.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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