Pete Hegseth has won enough congressional votes to become the next US defense secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats.

The New York Times reported that in the vote in Congress on January 24 (local time), three Republican senators, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski, opposed Mr. Pete Hegseth to hold the position of US Secretary of Defense, causing the confirmation session to fall into a deadlock with 50 votes in favor and 50 votes against.

After that, US Vice President JD Vance, who holds the position of President of the Senate, had to cast the deciding vote to approve Mr. Hegseth to the position of Secretary of Defense.

This is the second time in history that a US Vice President had to intervene to break the deadlock during the vote. The first person to face this situation was Ms. Betsy DeVos, who later became the US Secretary of Education in 2017.

One of the three senators who opposed, Mr. McConnell said that the new US Secretary of Defense Hegseth had not demonstrated the ability to effectively manage an organization as large and complex as the military. “Just wanting to be a ‘change-maker’ is not enough to take on these positions,” Mr. McConnell said.

Mr. Pete Hegseth, 44, was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the Secretary of Defense in November last year. Mr. Hegseth was later accused of many scandals such as sexual harassment, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement.

However, Mr. Hegseth has denied all these allegations.