President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is facing a firestorm of backlash for voicing his belief that women should not serve in military combat roles.

Members of a platoon of female U.S. Marine Corps recruits gear up before training in hand-to-hand combat at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S.C., in 2023. (Stephen B. Morton/AP) The ...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday ordered a 60-day review of military combat arms standards to ensure that exceptions are not being made for female troops to assume the physically demanding ...