A Princeton and Harvard-educated former combat veteran, Hegseth went on to make a career at Fox News, where he hosted a weekend show. Trump tapped him as the defense secretary to lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

In brief remarks, he outlined what he said were his guiding principles: “Restore the warrior ethos in everything that we do, rebuild our military and reestablish deterrence.”