The Washington GOP establishment’s opposition to Pete Hegseth serving as President Trump’s secretary of defense has nothing to do with the unsubstantiated allegations against Hegseth and everything to do with resistance to Trump’s plans to reform the Department of Defense and end America’s involvement in endless foreign wars that are so beloved by the establishment.

That’s why Hegseth’s nomination is a hill Trump should die on. If a handful of Senate Republicans can sink Hegseth, they will spend the next four years undermining and obstructing Trump’s entire agenda. Trump needs to send them a message that such obstruction won’t be tolerated in his second term. Now is the time for the president-elect to make them understand that if they oppose his nominees, they’ll be putting their political careers in jeopardy.

Republican senators like Joni Ernst of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who purport to be concerned about Hegseth because of alleged wrongdoing in his past, are just being dishonest. Their real objection is not with Hegseth but with Trump’s plans and his policies, especially his foreign policy.

Last week, Ernst waged a personal jihad to sink Hegseth’s nomination. As my colleague Shawn Fleetwood reported here at The Federalist, the Iowa senator repeatedly called Trump urging him to dump Hegseth, while at the same time surrogates, including Graham, were urging Trump to nominate Ernst instead. Both Ernst and Graham have expressed concern over a series of unsubstantiated allegations against Hegseth, of wrongdoing during his time working at Fox News and also while leading veteran-related nonprofit organizations. Hegseth has denied the allegations, and numerous colleagues of his have come forward to dispute the anonymous accusations.