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

Trump's nominee for secretary of defense vows not to back down despite multiple controversies emerging since he was named

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.