Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s name was not among those considered as likely picks for Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary among those in the Defense Department. In fact, his name hardly emerged in the run up to the announcement if at all.

“Everyone is simply shocked,” one defense official told CNN reacting to the news.

Another defense official who was following the potential picks for the position only learned about the possibility of Hegseth in the hours before the nomination and, like others who spoke on condition of anonymity with CNN, didn’t even know how to react.

But in Hegseth, Trump is likely to have a loyalist leading the department with which he had an often rocky relationship during his first term. Trump feuded with his first Defense Secretary, James Mattis, who resigned in protest after Trump announced an immediate withdrawal of US forces from Syria. Mark Esper, Trump’s other confirmed Defense Secretary, had openly warned about the threat of another Trump administration in the weeks leading up to the election.

/ CNN