WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s choice for his next defense chief, to be announced Friday, faces conflict abroad, budget retrenchment at home and the expectation that the White House will have a heavy hand in Pentagon affairs – at least if past is prologue.
For the job, Obama is turning to a seasoned Pentagon operative who rose up the short list when others took themselves out of contention.
The White House said Obama will announce his pick Friday. Ashton Carter will be nominated to replace Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, according to people close to the process who spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement. Carter’s nomination has been expected for days but Obama held off on making a statement while the vetting of the former Pentagon official was being completed.
Although defense is typically a coveted Cabinet portfolio, it has appeared less so heading into Obama’s final two years in office, especially once tensions surfaced between the White House and Pentagon, where top officials complained about West Wing micromanagement. The next defense chief will inherit a Pentagon wrestling with the Islamic State militant threat in Iraq and Syria, an unsettled course for Afghanistan, Russia’s provocations in Ukraine, tensions elsewhere and reports of sexual assault in the military, all in a time of deep budget cuts.
Hagel, who is staying on until a successor is in place, resigned under pressure from the president but cast his departure Thursday as a mutual decision and said “no major differences” with Obama led to his stepping down. Asked directly whether he felt pressure to resign, Hagel was not specific.