Congress

Who could be the Pentagon’s No. 2 in a Pete Hegseth DOD?

Published

2 years ago

November 19, 2024

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.

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”