Trump Weighs Replacing Hegseth, and a CBS Source Says DeSantis Is Under Consideration for the Pentagon as He Calls the Midterms a 'Meteor Strike'

President Donald Trump has been asking advisers whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should keep his job after Republicans' heavy losses in Tuesday's midterm elections, and one source told CBS News that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is among those being considered to replace him. The source argued that DeSantis could be confirmed by the Senate during the lame-duck session and take over the Pentagon when his term as governor ends on Jan. 5.

The report, by CBS News reporters Jennifer Jacobs and Emma Nicholson and republished Wednesday by WKMG in Orlando, rests on a single anonymous source for the DeSantis detail. Other sources told CBS that Trump has not decided to replace Hegseth, and the president publicly defended him on Wednesday. Neither DeSantis nor his office has publicly addressed the report in the coverage reviewed by The Florida Press.

The story landed the same day DeSantis delivered one of the bleakest postelection assessments of any Republican in the country, describing the national results as "the political equivalent of a meteor strike" while arguing that Florida had served as a GOP firewall.

What CBS News reported

According to CBS, Trump has been asking advisers, and people he speaks with by phone, whether Hegseth should stay on after Democrats captured both chambers of Congress. Some White House aides expect blame for the party's losses to fall on two senior military leaders who helped guide the war with Iran: Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads U.S. Central Command, and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Democrats were already trying to impeach Hegseth before the election, CBS reported, and that effort could grow now that they hold strong majorities in both the House and Senate. A separate PolitiFact analysis published Wednesday noted that outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has begun the process of forcing a House impeachment vote on Hegseth.

Vice President JD Vance offered his own diagnosis of the defeat in a post on X on Wednesday morning: "The reason we lost is the war."

It was in that context that one source told CBS that DeSantis is being considered for the top job at the Pentagon. CBS did not report that DeSantis had been approached or that he wants the position.

The White House says Hegseth has Trump's confidence

Asked on Wednesday afternoon whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, Trump answered, "No, I think he's doing a very good job."

Trump was also asked about the idea of appointing Hegseth to the Senate seat that Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn will vacate when she becomes governor of that state. He said he had not heard that suggestion, but added, "I actually think he'd be very popular if he did that."

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the president has "full confidence in Secretary Hegseth." She also praised U.S. military operations in Iran and Venezuela and Hegseth's work to reverse what she described as the Biden-era Pentagon's focus on "DEI and woke ideology."

Why the Pentagon fight runs through Tampa

Any shake-up at the top of the Defense Department would be felt directly in Florida. U.S. Central Command, the headquarters that has directed the war with Iran and that Cooper leads, is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, which is also home to U.S. Special Operations Command. U.S. Southern Command, which has overseen the military's campaign against alleged drug-smuggling boats and operations involving Venezuela, is headquartered in Doral in Miami-Dade County.

If White House aides are right that blame will fall on Cooper, the scrutiny would land on a command whose headquarters, staff and contractors are part of the Tampa Bay economy. CBS did not report any decision affecting Cooper or Caine, and neither officer has been removed.

DeSantis and the Pentagon, again

This is not the first time DeSantis's name has surfaced for the job. In early December 2024, when Hegseth's nomination was in trouble over allegations about his personal conduct, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press all reported that the president-elect's team was considering DeSantis as a replacement pick. Hegseth survived that stretch and was confirmed in January 2025.

DeSantis is a Navy veteran. According to his official congressional biography, he was commissioned as a Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps officer while attending Harvard Law School and deployed to Iraq during the 2007 troop surge as an adviser to a Navy SEAL commander. He later remained in the Navy Reserve.

The governor and the president have had a complicated relationship. DeSantis was widely seen as Trump's leading alternative in the 2024 Republican presidential primary before dropping out in the face of strong GOP support for Trump.

DeSantis: a "meteor strike" for Republicans

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday, DeSantis said the midterm results were a severe blow to his party nationally, according to the News Service of Florida, whose report was published by WUSF. He said calling the results a wave would not be accurate, describing them instead as "the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States." He warned that Republicans could feel the effects for "two years, four years, six years, maybe even longer."

FOX 13 reported that DeSantis also called the results an "extinction-level event" for Republicans nationally and said the party was in a "deep hole." He warned that Democratic control of the Senate could make it harder to confirm Cabinet officials or a Supreme Court nominee, and that conflict between Congress and the White House was likely to grow.

At a news conference in Lake Wales on Wednesday, WKMG reported, DeSantis called the election a "100-year-type political earthquake" and told Republicans to "Buckle up!" He said the balance of power had shifted "not just for two years," and that once Democrats reach a number like 56 Senate seats, "you can't unring that bell in one election." In posts on X, he predicted Democrats would hold 55 Senate seats and more than 250 House seats, and said Republicans might not retake the Senate until 2032.

Florida as the GOP "firewall"

DeSantis argued that Florida bucked the national trend. Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly in the governor's race, and Republicans also won Florida's U.S. Senate, attorney general and chief financial officer races, according to FOX 13. DeSantis said Florida was the only one of the country's 10 largest states expected to remain under Republican control, while cautioning that the state's success "is not guaranteed."

The picture was not entirely rosy for the GOP in Tallahassee. The News Service of Florida reported that Democrats cut the Republican advantage in the state House to roughly 70 to 50, pending remaining votes, ending the GOP supermajority there. DeSantis blamed former House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican with whom he clashed repeatedly, for the loss of a net 15 House seats. Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Republicans won the top statewide races by about 3 points or less and argued that national Democrats should invest more in Florida.

DeSantis credited Amendment 3, the property tax measure voters approved Tuesday, with turning out Republican voters, and he said he is focused on the remaining two months of his term, including a special session to carry out the amendment.

The calendar that makes the scenario possible

The timing described by the CBS source depends on two clocks. Under the Florida Constitution, a governor's term begins on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January following the election, which in 2027 falls on Jan. 5. That is when Donalds is scheduled to take office and DeSantis's second and final term ends.

The newly elected Congress, with its Democratic majorities, convenes in early January. Until then, Republicans still control the Senate, which is why the source pointed to the lame-duck period as the window for a confirmation vote. A nominee who has not been confirmed by the time the new Senate is seated would face a Democratic majority instead.

What's next

For now, the DeSantis scenario is one anonymous source's account of options being discussed, set against the president's public statement that Hegseth is doing a very good job and the White House's declaration of full confidence in him. Any nomination would have to move quickly to reach a vote before the new Congress is sworn in.

In the meantime, DeSantis is preparing to call lawmakers back for a special session on Amendment 3, whose first changes take effect Jan. 1, 2027, and to hand the governor's office to Donalds four days later. The Florida Press will update this story as the White House or the governor's office responds.