BY APPOINTMENT: Donald Trump named Fox News host Pete Hegseth, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, to be his next defense secretary, appointing an ideological loyalist to command 1.3 million active-duty members of the military.

  Trump is putting together a team whose qualifications are ideology over expertise.

  Hegsteth is a supporter of Trump’s “America First” philosophy and has defended Trump’s friendly approach to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. He is a graduate of Princeton and a major in the Army Reserves. “Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,” Trump said. “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down.”

  Hegseth joined Fox as a contributor in 2014 and is a co-host of “Fox & Friends.” He says women do not belong in combat and has blasted “wokeness” and diversity-equity initiatives in the military.

  Trump also named Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, the woman who shot the dog that wouldn’t hunt, to run the Homeland Security Department, a position that oversees the country’s immigration system. Noem in a social media statement pledged to “secure the border and restore safety to American communities.”

  The president-elect also said Tesla billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, two of his biggest money backers, will lead what is being called the “Department of Government Efficiency.” Musk has promised to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” he said in a statement.

  And among one of the most unlikely appointments, Trump named former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, to be ambassador to Israel. 

NEXT UP: Senate Republicans are expected today to pick a new majority leader to replace Mitch McConnell. 

  The leading candidates are Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who just won election to his second term. All three agreed that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

   Scott, who’s not so popular in the Senate, is pushing hard with appearances on Fox news, posing himself as the Trumpiest of candidates. “We have got to change the way the Senate is run to get Trump’s agenda done” he said and “I will make sure Trump’s agenda is done.”

TOO BIG TO JAIL: The judge in Donald Trump’s New York hush money fraud has delayed sentencing a third time while he weighs how to handle a president-elect convicted of 34 felony counts. Trump is the first former president to become a felon and the first felon to be president-elect.

  Trump’s lawyers moved for the entire case and conviction to be thrown out, citing his status as a future president and the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. The former and future president … at least on paper … could be sentenced to up to four years in prison. 

  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is in a bind between pursuing sentencing and giving up to allow Trump a smooth transition into the presidency. 

TOUGH MEDICINE: Some shots in the arm are coming if Donald Trump grants power over federal healthcare agencies to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaxxer and conspiracy monger who has insinuated himself with the president-elect.

  Kennedy posted on Twitter/X: “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

  Kennedy is a champion of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic used in humans and animals that he believes contrary to scientific evidence should be used to treat Covid-19. The same with hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug. Kennedy claims the FDA won’t approve these treatments because they are in bed with the vaccine industry.

  The former Democrat also espouses “chelation,” a method of removing heavy metals from the blood. He claims many vaccines contain mercury that causes autism. Again, without scientific evidence.

THE OBIT PAGE: Natasha Alexenko, who was raped in a stairwell as a 20-year-old film student at the New York Institute of Technology and later became an advocate for the immediate processing of “rape kits,” died at age 51 of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.

  Alexenko found out 10 years after her assault that the physical evidence collected from her body that night was never processed. A “John Doe” indictment was issued just short of the statute of limitations deadline. Fourteen years after her rape a suspect was named through DNA, convicted, and sentenced to a stretch of 44 to 107 years in prison.

  In 2011 Alexenko created Natasha’s Justice Project, a foundation to push for reduction in the backlog of rape-kit testing. 

THE SPIN RACK: The NY Times reports that Special Counsel Jack Smith who has run the prosecutions of Donald Trump is planning to resign. — A federal judge yesterday blocked the new Louisiana law that requires display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. That one is likely headed to the Supreme Court. — President Biden and Donald Trump are expected to meet today, a transition tradition. — The FAA halted all US flights to Haiti after three planes were hit by gunfire in that chaotic country.

IT’S BEEN SAID: “As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” HL Mencken

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