WHISPERS: Jim Webb Under Consideration for Secretary of Defense

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Jan 3, 2019

Sources within the White House assert that President Trump is considering nominating former Virginia Senator and Secretary of the Navy Jim Webb as the new Secretary of Defense.

Webb is a Democrat who ran in the 2016 election as a skeptical voice within the Democrat Party, unafraid to challenge establishment consensus on foreign policy and cultural issues. He spoke after the election about how the Democratic Party had shifted to the far left, making him a sore thumb in the party.

Webb would be nominated as a qualified national security figure who shares Donald Trump’s views on a restrained foreign policy and the need to withdraw American troops from eternal nation-building missions, such as Syria and Afghanistan. Previous Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned from office, making it clear in a resignation letter that he couldn’t continue working under a President like Trump who deviated ideologically from some of the hawkish views dominating U.S foreign policy for more than half a century.

Like Mattis, Webb is a decorated Marine Corps veteran. Webb graduated from the Naval Academy in 1968 and deployed to Vietnam shortly after, earning a Navy Cross and two Purple Hearts. Webb described his experiences being wounded in combat in Vietnam in a 2015 Democratic Party debate, referencing the Viet Cong enemy combatant who wounded him when asked to describe one of his greatest enemies.

Webb medically retired from the Marine Corps on account of his injuries from Vietnam and went on to become Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy in 1987- meaning a potential role in the Trump Administration as Secretary of Defense would be his second round of serving under a Republican President. He was elected a U.S Senator for Virginia in 2007, and was a consistent opponent to the Iraq War, aligning concisely with President Trump’s non-interventionist instincts.

Webb has also become a Democratic voice against the party’s addiction to racial politics and cultural animuses.