WASHINGTON

Pete Hegseth was sworn in on Saturday as the US’ new secretary of defense.

The ceremony came less than 12 hour later after US Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate to confirm Hegseth to lead the Pentagon.

Vance came to the Senate to break the tie after Republicans Mitch McConnell – a former Senate minority and majority leader – as well as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voted against Hegseth.

"The yeas are 50 and the nays are 50. The Senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the nomination is confirmed," Vance said, carrying out one of his duties as president of the Senate, namely breaking a tied vote.

It was only the second time in US history that a vice president broke a tie on a Cabinet appointment.

The only previous incident was in 2017, when Mike Pence, then-vice president under Donald Trump in his first term, cast the deciding vote for Betsy DeVos to be secretary of education. For his bid to return to the White House last year, Trump replaced Pence with Vance on his ticket after disagreements over Pence presiding over the Electoral College vote that made Joe Biden replace Trump for four years.

'We don’t want to fight wars'

Hegseth is Trump’s second nominee in this term to take the oath, joining Secretary of State Marco Rubio in President Donald Trump's Cabinet.

After becoming the nation’s 29th secretary of defense, Hegseth thanked Vance for breaking the tie.

"We don’t want to fight wars," he said in brief remarks.

"We want to deter them … and we want to end them responsibly. But if we need to fight them, we’re going to bring overwhelming and decisive force to close with and destroy the enemy and bring our boys home," he added.

Separately, Hegseth sent a message to the US Armed Forces listing his three main principles as "restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence."

"All of this will be done with a focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness," he said.

He also promise to stand shoulder with shoulder with the US military.

The former Fox News host and military veteran is seen as one of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet nominees. He faced allegations of excessive drinking, financial mismanagement, and no history or demonstrated capacity leading a large bureaucracy.

Hegseth, 44, also faced allegations of sexual assault stemming from a 2017 incident in California. Police investigated the claim but did not file charges.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Hegseth paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.

Trump congratulated Hegseth after his confirmation.

"Congratulations to Pete Hegseth. He will make a great Secretary of Defense!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.