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.
POLITICO 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 businessperson 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.