WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump The choice of Secretary of Defense is still up in the air, but it is certain that he will seek to reform the Pentagon and elect a loyal member. During his tumultuous first term, five men served as Pentagon chief only to resign, be fired or briefly serve as a stopgap.

While he has yet to announce a decision, the names of potential Pentagon chiefs range from well-known ones such as Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to a host of former administration loyalists. , including retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who held national security positions during Trump’s first term.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been nominated, but Trump said on social media on Saturday that Pompeo would not join the new administration. Representative Michael Waltz of Florida had also been mentioned, but has now been chosen to be Trump’s national security adviser.

Some decisions can be delayed for days as candidates fight for attention and officials wait for a decision. final results of house racesweighing whether Republican lawmakers can be turned to or whether others are a safer choice to avoid a new election for an empty congressional seat.

“The election will tell us a lot about how he will deal with the Pentagon,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine Corps colonel.

He said someone with a deep military background may not represent as dramatic a change as others who may be seen as stronger Trump loyalists.

With a number of top posts at the State Department, the National Security Council and the Department of Defense up for grabs, Trump is expected to lean toward those who support his desire for End US involvement in any war.use the military to control the border between the United States and Mexico and take a hard line on Iran.

The key test, however, will be loyalty and a willingness to do what Trump wants, as he seeks to avoid the backlash he received from the Pentagon the first time.

Trump’s relationship with his civilian and military leaders during those years was fraught with tension, confusion and frustration, as they struggled to moderate or even simply interpret tweets and presidential pronouncements that surprised them with abrupt policy decisions that they were not prepared to explain or defend. .

Time and again, senior Pentagon officials, both uniformed and not, worked to dissuade, delay or derail Trump, on issues ranging from his initial demand to ban transgender troops from serving in the military and his announcements that it was withdraw troops from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan at your impulse to use troops to guard the border and stop civil unrest on the streets of Washington.

In his first administration, Trump focused on what he saw as strong military and defense industry executives. Initially enamored of the generals, Trump eventually discovered that they were not loyal enough.

“He got mad at them,” Cancian said. “They weren’t as flexible as I thought. …I’ve heard people speculate that maybe the president would be fired. So that’s something to watch.”

Air Force Gen. CQ Brown took over as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 2023 for a four-year term, but military leaders serve at the discretion of the president. Brown, a fighter pilot and only the second Black officer to serve as president, spoke after the police killing of George Floyd and described the prejudice he faced in his life and career.

Trump is also expected to choose someone he despises as defense secretary. equity and diversity programs and is less likely to counter their plans based on the limits set by the Constitution and the rule of law. But it could also push to increase defense spending, at least initially, including on U.S. missile defense.

A primary and key concern is that Trump select someone who will not oppose potentially illegal or dangerous orders or protect The long-standing apolitical status of the military..

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raised that red flag. In a message to the force, he said the US military maintains ready to “obey all legal orders of its civilian chain of command,” adding that troops take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

He echoed retired Army Gen. Mark Milley’s statement during a closing speech four years as president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“We do not take an oath before a king, a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath before a would-be dictator,” Milley said. “We do not swear an oath to an individual. “We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that this is America, and we are willing to die to protect it.”

Trump’s first defense chief, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, quickly learned to stay under his boss’s radar by largely eliminating press conferences that Trump could see.

Mattis and Milley, along with Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general, and retired Marine General Joseph Dunford, who also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, quietly worked behind the scenes to moderate some of Trump’s decisions.

They stalled his demands that troops quickly and completely withdraw from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and succeeded in preventing the use of active-duty troops to quell civil unrest in Washington.

Two years later, Mattis abruptly resigned in December 2018, frustrated by Trump’s national security policies, including his perceived disdain for allies and his demands to withdraw all troops from Syria. Patrick Shanahan, deputy secretary of defense, took over as acting Pentagon chief but withdrew as a candidate six months later due to personal family problems that became public.

Then-Secretary of the Army Mark Esper took on an acting role, but had to briefly step aside when he was nominated, so Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer served as acting chief until Esper was confirmed.

Esper was fired days after Trump lost the 2020 electionlargely because the president didn’t believe he was loyal enough. Trump was especially angered by Esper’s public opposition to invoking the two-century-old Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops to the District of Columbia during the unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd.

Trump appointed Christopher Miller, a retired Army officer who has been director of the National Counterterrorism Center, to serve as acting secretary and surrounded him with staunch loyalists.

That’s the Pentagon officials quietly say they hope to see in the new Trump administration.