I've been wondering whether the claim - reported by several sources - that Sen. Joni Ernst wanted the SecDef job for herself was a three dimensional chess move by the Trump people? Leaking it was clever way to get her to weaken her stance in opposition to the DOD candidacy of Pete Hegseth.
The reason I'm asking is that it's hard for me to imagine a Senator wanting to swap the legislative job for a cabinet secretary position. Sitting senators often serve multiple terms and make a career of it. Cabinet secretaries are effectively term-limited as they normally don't serve multiple presidents.
