Pete Hegseth says Trump told him to ‘keep fighting’ amid rumors he’ll be replaced by DeSantis

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled nominee for secretary of defense, shared an impassioned post saying he will “never back down” amid a flurry of rumors that the president-elect is contemplating replacing him with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.

“I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers. The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of [Donald Trump] – and me. So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth. Our warriors never back down, & neither will I,” Hegseth wrote on X on Wednesday morning.

The post went viral in the aftermath of reports on Tuesday night that Trump may swap out Hegseth with DeSantis. One source told NBC News that DeSantis is “very much in contention” while another said: “Trump talked to the governor and wants him to do it.” The Wall Street Journal and CBS News also reported the rumours, citing unnamed sources.

Despite the rumours, Hegseth, 44, told reporters on Wednesday morning that Trump encouraged him to “keep fighting”.

“I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said, keep going, keep fighting,” he said. “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter.”

Hegseth has been embroiled with controversy since he was named. Earlier this week, the New Yorker reported whistleblower accusations that he was forced out of leadership roles in two military veteran organisations following allegations of financial mismanagement, aggressive drunkenness and sexist behaviour.

The former Fox News host told reporters on Tuesday, in response as to whether he has an alcohol problem, that he wouldn’t “dignify that with a response”.

Last week, a 2018 email from Penelope Hegseth, Hegseth’s mother, obtained by the New York Times made headlines as it saw Penelope accusing her son of routinely mistreating women and displaying a lack of character.

“You are an abuser of women – that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote.

Penelope Hegseth walked back the remarks she made six years ago and also made a plea for Hegseth’s supporters to stand by his side in a Wednesday morning interview with Fox & Friends.

“We all believe in him. We really believe that he is not that man he was seven years ago. I’m not that mother and I hope people will hear that story today and truth of that story,” she told viewers.

She continued: “I am here to tell the truth. To tell the truth to the American people and tell the truth to senators on the Hill, especially female senators. I really hope that you will not listen to the media and you will listen to Pete.”

Penelope emphasized that who she and her son were in her 2018 email are “not the people we are today”.

“They were going through – Pete, and his wife – were going through a difficult divorce, a very emotional time and I’m sure many of you across the country understand how difficult divorce is on a family. There is emotion. We say things and I wrote that in haste, with deep emotion, as a parent,” she explained.

She added: “Pete and I are both very passionate people. I wrote that out of love, two hours later I retracted it with an apology and nobody has seen that. It was a difficult time.”

JD Vance, the vice-president-elect, also came to Hegseth’s defense on Wednesday morning, noting Penelope Hegseth’s appearance on Fox & Friends and telling followers on X that “the media never talks about the apology because they’re trying to destroy him, not tell the truth”. At press time, multiple news outlets had reported on her apology.