Britt on supporting Trump nominees, DOGE: ‘They want us to shake up business as usual’

U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) called into Alabama Morning News with JT Nysewander to discuss the cabinet confirmation process and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Britt on Thursday met with President Trump’s designated nominee to serve as Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

“I am supporting Pete and his nomination,” Britt confirmed to JT.

Alabama’s junior U.S. Senator explained that “[President Trump] ‘is saying, I want people in here that are willing to execute the vision that I laid before the American people.’ The American people heard what Donald Trump wanted to do. They know he wants to cut waste. They know he wants to get things back to where they should be.”

“And the Department of Defense, I think, is an excellent example of that. Gone are the days that people want a liberal ideology, that being the focus of the Secretary of Defense, and implementing that into our military,” she continued. “People want the military getting back to the basics, getting back to what it should be, making sure that our military men and women, that our warfighters are the best trained, equipped, and ready across the planet, looking at the challenges in front of us, and ensuring that the warfighter and lethality is at the forefront of what they think about each and every day. And that’s exactly what Pete Hegseth is going to do.

Britt explained how she approaches the confirmation process for Trump nominees across the board.

“I obviously give the president an incredible deference when it comes to selecting the men and women that he wants around them,” she outlined. “I want the opportunity to sit down with each of them to just say, tell me about your vision, tell me about what you believe you can achieve in this department, how can you execute President Trump’s agenda? And then I also want an opportunity to talk about Alabama.”

Britt added, “So, in that meeting, after we talked about Pete’s vision for the Department of Defense … we also talked about Alabama. I was able to talk to him extensively about what Redstone Arsenal offers, about the various, multiple starred commands that are focused in and located there. I talked to him about why Space Command should be located (in Huntsville) and the politicalization of the department.”

In addition to Redstone Arsenal, she brought up Alabama’s three other military bases, including the home of Army Aviation in Britt’s native Wiregrass. Britt said “we can create government efficiencies” and make “sure that our men and women uniform are in a stronger position” by housing manned and unmanned capabilities together at Fort Novosel.

In a second segment, Britt talked about attending a bicameral Thursday meeting at the Capitol with DOGE founders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Both of them, for far too long, they realized that unelected bureaucrats have run a red tape regime. And it’s having real consequences for the American people, for our small businesses, for our economy,” Britt explained.

“[T]he first thing we need to do is roll back red tape, pull these regulations back that are hurting everyday Americans, and then look for ways for the federal government to be more efficient, where the government is working for the people and not the other way around.”

She concluded, “This is what we need. This is what the American people want. They want us to shake up business as usual, and they want us to get it back to our core principles.”

Grayson Everett is the state and political editor for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270