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.

For the last 50 years, almost every nominee to lead the Pentagon has been a consensus pick who drew lopsided margins of support in the Senate. Pete Hegseth’s nomination has been a notable exception.