Project 2025 pressuring US Republican senators to confirm Pete Hegseth as defence chief

Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts said group is spending US$1 million to pressure senators unwilling to back Hegseth as defence secretary

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Pete Hegseth, US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Defence, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Published: 5:24am, 6 Dec 2024Updated: 5:58am, 6 Dec 2024

The think-tank behind Project 2025, the conservative blueprint linked to US president-elect Donald Trump, is launching an effort to back Trump’s imperilled selection for secretary of defence in its latest attempt to wield influence in the incoming Republican administration.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Thursday that his group will spend US$1 million to pressure senators unwilling to back Pete Hegseth, whose nomination to lead the Pentagon has come into question over his views on women serving in combat and reports about his personal behaviour. A number of Republican senators have declined to commit to backing Hegseth or have asked for more information about his drinking and treatment of women.

“It’ll be messaging right now with their constituents about how out of step they are with the Trump agenda,” Roberts said in an interview, who argued that criticism of Hegseth was being driven by “the establishment”.

Roberts’ announcement that he will support Hegseth is the latest sign that Project 2025, which Trump disavowed amid Democratic criticism during his campaign, is newly ascendant as Trump returns to the White House. The president-elect has picked several of its authors and contributors to key positions.

Roberts spoke to Associated Press during an event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, after he said he saw Trump at another event on Wednesday also attended by other incoming members of the president-elect’s cabinet. Roberts did not say whether he met privately or would meet privately with Trump.

Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage Foundation. Photo: AP

Project 2025 includes proposals to reclassify thousands of federal workers so they could be fired and eliminate or curtail several government agencies.