Ten days after Newsmax reported that Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan would soon be tapped for permanent appointment to run the Pentagon, President Donald Trump made it official Thursday night.
But like nearly all recent Trump appointees, Shanahan, 56, is almost a certainty to face a highly charged confirmation battle, Senate sources assured Newsmax.
Should Shanahan be appointed and confirmed, he will have the slimmest resume in public life of any secretary of defense since Proctor and Gamble President Neil McElroy assumed the position in 1957.
The former Boeing Aircraft vice president’s sole national security credential is that he was Deputy Secretary of Defense until being moved to the top job at the Pentagon last December following the resignation of then-Secretary James Mattis.
If confirmed, Shanahan will also be only the second secretary since the Department of Defense was created in 1947 who never served in the U.S. military (the first was Dick Cheney, who served from 1993-97).
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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