← Chronicle · Confirmation · January 25, 2025

Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Secretary of Defense, 51–50

Senate vote: 51–50

Pete Hegseth was confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of Defense on January 25, 2025, by a vote of 51–50 — a one-vote margin that made his the most contested confirmation of the opening cabinet wave. He is the 29th Secretary of Defense, a title restyled Secretary of War in September 2025.

The mission that started here is the Pentagon portfolio this chronicle tracks: the Department of War, its personnel and readiness reforms, and the military side of the administration’s foreign policy, run alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Sources: Senate confirmation record, January 2025 (vote and date banked in this site’s research cluster A); Department of Defense.