- It's not surprising to see Donald Trump pluck another Fox News personality for his cabinet.
- But some people still seem surprised to see Trump nominate host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.
- It's a reminder that while Twitter — and Elon Musk — are influencing Trump, he is also a very, very big TV guy.
Earlier this week, I wondered how much Twitter was going to influence the next Trump administration — and how much influence we'd see from TV, which was tremendously important the first time around.
Here's one clue: Trump has just nominated Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defense. The nomination has reportedly stunned some military leaders, Washington insiders, and at least one of Hegseth's Fox News colleagues.
"You're telling me Pete is going to oversee 2 million employees?" a fellow Fox host asked CNN's Brian Stelter.
Again: During Trump's first term, he was famous for 1) hiring people he saw on TV, 2) hiring people who "looked the part," and 3) hiring Fox News talent in particular. Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran, ticks all those boxes. Regardless of whether he's the right guy to manage 2 million people.
So yes. TV's going to remain important to Trump.
On the other hand: The border between TV and Twitter — or more broadly, the internet — has always been permeable in the Trump era. Some of the clips you're seeing right now to explain who Hegseth is come from the internet — like the interview he did last week with podcaster/YouTuber Shawn Ryan, one of the many men with podcasts/YouTube channels Trump visited during the 2024 campaign.
Trump, who famously didn't use a computer for years, isn't hanging out on Twitter, YouTube, and 4chan. But he listens to people who do.
And now one of the loudest voices in the room — perhaps the loudest voice, at the moment — is Elon Musk, who is both a Twitter creature and Twitter's owner.
Here's The New York Times on Musk's ascent to the top of Trumpworld:
Publicly, over just the first week of the transition, Mr. Musk has endorsed Senator Rick Scott of Florida to be the next Senate majority leader; urged Republican senators to embrace recess appointments for Mr. Trump; suggested that all government employees should submit a "weekly email of accomplishments"; called for the Department of Education to be closed; solicited recommendations for new administration roles that he could bring to Mr. Trump; wondered if Canada was "dying"; and posted plenty of Trump-themed memes. Behind the scenes, Mr. Musk's behavior has been far more hands-on than even some of his allies expected. His role, in the eyes of some Trump aides, even outstrips that of Howard Lutnick and Linda E. McMahon, the two formally appointed leaders of the Trump transition. He has sat in on calls with foreign leaders, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and plans to meet in person this week with President Javier Milei of Argentina when Mr. Milei visits Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Musk has also attended at least one national security meeting with Mr. Trump alongside the likes of Stephen Miller, a top aide, and Donald Trump Jr., according to a person briefed on the meeting.
The Times also notes that Musk recently "walked into the dining room about 30 minutes after the president-elect did and received a similar standing ovation."
That seems like the kind of thing that might eventually cause a rift between two men who really enjoy a solo spotlight. But for now, both things can be true: Donald Trump has both Twitter and TV on his mind — even if he's only actually watching one of them.