President Trump has picked current acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan to be the next Secretary of Defense. Shanahan was previously an executive for Boeing.
According to CNBC:
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to nominate acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan to formally take over the top spot at the Pentagon, the president’s spokeswoman said Thursday.
Shanahan needs Senate confirmation now that he is being nominated to the role previously held by James Mattis.
Shanahan would come to the role with no experience either in the military or in foreign policy, except for his work in the Trump administration. His views on America’s role in the world have been shaped by his decades in the private sector.
Before coming to the Pentagon, Shanahan spent just over 30 years at Boeing, where he oversaw the management of profit and loss for the 737, 747, 767, 777 and 787 programs. In 2017, he left the aerospace giant to become the 33rd deputy secretary of Defense, a role that oversees the Pentagon’s colossal $700 billion budget.
The nomination by Trump followed the recent end to a months-long ethics investigation into Shanahan that had determined that he took no actions in his official capacity to benefit Boeing.
