DeSantis at Defense? What would a Pentagon run by the Florida governor look like?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed military force against drug cartels in Mexico, and recently took a soft line on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
TALLAHASSEE, Florida − Over his political career, Gov. Ron DeSantis has advocated using armed force against Mexican drug smugglers, opposed attacking Syria, both supported and opposed sending arms to Ukraine, aggressively supported Israel and vowed to eliminate “wokeness” in the military.
If Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, fails to gain Senate support amid allegations of sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse, DeSantis might get the chance to put those policies into place, sources recently told Paste BN.
The pick would be an unlikely one for the one-time allies turned political rivals. DeSantis was pilloried repeatedly by Trump and his backers when he ran against his former political patron in the GOP primaries and dropped out early from the contest.
The icy relationship has thawed somewhat since Trump’s victory last month.
DeSantis is a former judge advocate general (JAG) officer in the U.S. Navy, and served in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay. He won a U.S. House seat in 2012 and was there till 2018, when he first won the race for governor.
While running for the White House last year, DeSantis argued for a middle ground posture between the Bush-era, pro-interventionist Iraq War ethos and Obama’s “weakness.”
“I also believed as I arrived in Congress that neither post 9/11 neo-conservatism, which represented a departure from traditional Reaganesque peace-through-strength policies, nor the fecklessness of the Obama administration, which merely invited hostility from America's adversaries, were desirable vessels for a successful national security strategy,” DeSantis said in October 2023, at an event held by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Should he become Secretary of Defense, DeSantis would carry out policy set by Trump, but he would also be a key advisor in the Cabinet.
Here’s a look at DeSantis’ views on hot spots across the globe and closer to home:
Mexico
On the campaign trail, DeSantis said he was in favor of using force against Mexican drug cartels, even leaving the door open to missile attacks.
The surge of overdose deaths by Americans in recent years due to fentanyl, a synthetic heroin-like drug often imported through the U.S.-Mexico border, justifies such an approach, he argued.
“I’m not going to send troops to Ukraine. But I am going to send them to our southern border. When these drug smugglers bring fentanyl across the border, we’re going to leave them stone cold dead,” DeSantis posted on X in August 2023.
He also has sent Florida National Guard and law enforcement agents to the Texas-Mexico border to help aid immigration enforcement there.
'Woke' military
In laying out a plan for the military during his campaign in 2023, DeSantis promised to eliminate “woke” policies within U.S. fighting forces.
"It is time to rip the woke out of the military and return it to its core mission. We must restore a sense of confidence, conviction, and patriotic duty to our institutions — and that begins with our military,” he said.
His plan included removing diversity, equity and inclusion policies; ending the practices of allowing transgender service members to serve in alignment with their gender identity and paying for sex change hormones and surgeries; and reinstating service members who were ousted because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Russia and Ukraine
As a member of Congress, DeSantis heavily criticized former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, slamming him for not including lethal weapons in an aid package to Ukraine in 2014. That was as irregular pro-Russian forces sought to gain control of the eastern part of the European country, after Russia had annexed the Crimean peninsula earlier that year.
During his campaign, though, DeSantis took a softer line, couching Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as a “territorial dispute.”
He later backtracked, saying Russia’s invasion was wrong, but has slammed President Joe Biden for not being tough enough on Russia and for providing aid to Ukraine in its effort to fend off the invasion.
“Biden invited the Russian invasion of Ukraine through his weakness,” DeSantis said in his Heritage speech. “And now his policy is basically seeking a blank check to continue a policy that has no identifiable end game.”
China
DeSantis sees China as the United States’ main geopolitical adversary.
“The threat posed by the (Chinese Communist Party) requires our primary focus and attention right now. They are the first truly peer competitor that we have dealt with in our lifetimes,” DeSantis said in the Heritage speech.
To confront China, he explained, the U.S. must modernize its military and look to deter Chinese aggression towards Taiwan, an island nation off its coast that China regards as part of its country.
Israel
DeSantis has been a consistently staunch supporter of Israel, supporting moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem when he was in Congress. Trump put the policy into effect during his first term in office.
As governor, DeSantis has been to Israel twice on official visits and has also approved new laws banning Florida governments from doing business with companies that boycott against Israel.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, he declared a state of emergency and sent planes to evacuaate Floridians from Israel.
Syria
In 2013, two years into a civil war in Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s government forces used chemical weapons on civilians. Then-President Barack Obama sought Congressional approval to launch military strikes against the Assad regime’s forces in response.
DeSantis opposed the move, saying the military objectives were unclear. He also feared intervening in the conflict, in which Sunni radicals, including Al-Qaeda members, rebelled against Assad’s rule, could lead to unforeseen consequences.
“The United States does not have an interest in assisting either side of the conflict or in refereeing a civil war amongst these warring anti-American factions,” DeSantis said at the time. “Moreover, there is a danger that an ill-planned or half-hearted American attack could make it easier for terrorist groups to obtain the very type of chemical weapons that al-Qaeda and other groups have long sought to use against America.”
The Syrian conflict, long dormant, has reignited in recent days as rebels have taken the key cities of Aleppo and Homs and Assad’s forces have retreated. The events add to the international turmoil with which the incoming Trump administration will contend.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the Paste BN Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.