What Happens When ‘religious Liberty’ Meets The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Some of the nation’s legendary “great men”—leaders like George Marshall and Clark Clifford—have served the country as defense secretary. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped a Fox News host for the job. Pete Hegseth is a veteran of wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but he stands out as being uniquely unqualified among his predecessors to oversee an agency with nearly 3 million employees.

Donald Trump’s appointment announcements are getting weird. The president-elect’s selection of Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State nominee, suggested a step toward GOP convention. But Trump’s selection of former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as his Director of National Intelligence—along with his announced plans to nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, and Rep.

Colorado legislators questioned Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday about what he has described as his “belt-tightening” budget proposal, previewing the difficult months to come as state leaders seek to fill a looming $635 million shortfall. “There are some things in this proposal that won’t be acceptable by our colleagues, and we will have to find another way,” Sen.

This article is part of The D. C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. To outsiders, it looks a whole lot like Donald Trump has unrivaled control over the current Republican Party. He rode a remarkable and ahistoric wave back to re-election last week, one in which his allies expanded their majority in the House, and the Senate will return in January with Republicans holding the gavels.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters in Congress, is the president-elect’s pick for attorney general, a stunning choice that builds upon Trump’s long-held views of the Justice Department as an extension of his White House. As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer wrote in a 2019 profile, the Florida Republican has made something of a political career trolling everyone from food stamp recipients to Michael Cohen.

President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he would nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense in his second term has already stirred controversy. Hegseth, a military veteran, staunch defender of Trump’s “America First” agenda, and an outspoken critic of what he calls the military’s “woke” culture, has built a career around challenging the military establishment.