Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s SitRep, where we also had to Google “Who is Pete Hegseth?”

Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: A Trump enforcer heads to the Defense Department, the president-elect reportedly asks Putin not to escalate in Ukraine, and the death toll in Sudan’s civil war may be even worse than previously reported.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s SitRep, where we also had to Google “Who is Pete Hegseth?”

Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: A Trump enforcer heads to the Defense Department, the president-elect reportedly asks Putin not to escalate in Ukraine, and the death toll in Sudan’s civil war may be even worse than previously reported.

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A little over a week after the election was called for Donald Trump, the president-elect has announced his picks to serve in all of the country’s major national security jobs.

Trump’s selection of Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Rep. Mike Waltz as national security advisor initially reassured Trump critics and foreign officials who were nervous about how he may carry out his foreign policy in a second term. Both are prominent China hawks who have sat on foreign affairs and intelligence committees in Congress.

Waltz and Rubio are “both serious and credible on foreign policy,” Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, wrote on X. U.S. allies “around the world [are] feeling more comfortable with both of these announcements.”

Then came Tuesday night’s announcement that Trump had selected Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth, which caught many off guard. “I confess I didn’t know who he was until 20 minutes ago,” Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters, according to Politico.

Trump’s decision to tap Hegseth, a loyalist and outspoken critic of diversity efforts at the Defense........

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