Trump abandoned Tata\u2019s nomination for a high-level policy job at the time amid Senate resistance. He was later named to the position in an acting capacity.<\/p>\n

The president quietly nominated Tata to serve as Pentagon personnel chief on Monday, along with several other loyalists and veterans of his first administration. The role would make Tata instrumental in fulfilling Trump\u2019s plans to ban transgender troops and dismantle diversity programs.<\/p>\n

Tata \u2014 a retired Army brigadier general, former state government official and Fox News regular \u2014 courted controversy for tweets<\/a> that called former President Barack Obama a \u201cterrorist leader,\u201d among other remarks.<\/p>\n

He referred to Obama as an antisemite<\/a> during a 2018 radio appearance and attacked Democratic politicians such as Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters<\/a>. Tata also made a series of Islamophobic tweets<\/a>, including \u201cIslam fuels more terror than any other religion or ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n

His hearing for the Pentagon\u2019s number three job was abruptly canceled in 2020 after senators said the White House didn\u2019t provide enough information about Tata<\/a> to assuage their concerns.<\/p>\n

Tata\u2019s nomination will prove another test for Senate Republicans, most of whom backed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s confirmation despite allegations of sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse, as well as concerns about his qualifications.<\/p>\n

Tata was installed as the Pentagon\u2019s top policy official<\/a> in an acting role after Trump purged the agency\u2019s top ranks at the end of his first term.<\/p>\n

Trump also continued to fill out the ranks of the Defense Department, sending eight total nominees to the Senate. He tapped Bradley Hansell, a Navy and Army Special Forces veteran who served on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019, as undersecretary of Defense for intelligence and security. He also picked Robert Kaldec, a career Air Force officer who helped spearhead the program to develop a Covid vaccine during the first Trump administration, as an assistant secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological Defense programs.<\/p>\n

Matthew Lohmeier was also formally nominated to be the Air Force\u2019s undersecretary. Trump had previously announced Lohmeier<\/a>, a former Space Force officer removed for comments he made on a conservative podcast that argued Marxism was spreading in the military, as his pick. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"