“The View” cohosts slam Donald Trump for picking Fox host as Secretary of Defense: 'We should be disgusted'

"I don't understand anybody who talks down to anybody in the military, but especially talking down to women in the military," Whoopi Goldberg added of Pete Hegseth.

The View's on-air personalities are quite disturbed by the fact that one of their industry's own will soon join Donald Trump's second presidential cabinet.

The show kicked off moderator Whoopi Goldberg's birthday Wednesday by laying into Trump and his selection of conservative Fox & Friends weekend host Pete Hegseth to join his administration as Secretary of Defense — a choice that The View stars collectively rebuked.

Before kicking things over to her colleagues, Goldberg said that Hegseth "clearly does not know anything about the military" despite previously serving in the military, after The View played a clip of Hegseth expressing his opinion on a past episode of the Shawn Ryan Show that women serving in the military with men "makes the situation more complicated" in combat.

"It makes me more than a little worried that you're picking someone who served for five or six years, he was mid-ranking, never has worked in the government," Sara Haines added. "You can say the government is bureaucratic and [you're going to] get an outside person that's going to clean it up, but it hasn't been cleaned up yet and you have to understand the place you're going into to operate it in its most efficient capacity."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who also previously worked under Trump's first administration, said she felt Hegseth "served his country admirably," but warned that "he has no policy-making experience and no Pentagon experience" qualifying him for the job. She added that he's a "disruptor who will help [Trump] implement his agenda," but that similarly appointed political rebels have tried — and failed — to accomplish similar feats in the past.

"I think that he's going to spend weeks just trying to navigate the Pentagon," Griffin said. "There are three million people that will be under him on day one. The entire U.S. Armed Forces, the entire civilian population that reports to them, it is the most complex and, by design, bureaucratic agency in government because it shouldn't be as simple as signing something and we're going to war."

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She also cautioned that there's no evidence that Hegseth "deeply understands the role," and that "you need a cool head with experience to do the job, and I don't think he has that."

As she's done on most episodes of The View since Trump won the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5, Sunny Hostin voiced strong opposition to the conservative political move.

"This is what America voted for," she reminded her audience, later adding: "I think what he said about women says a lot about who he is."

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She likened Hegseth's comments on the Shawn Ryan Show to "misogyny," and told the audience that "we should be disgusted" by Trump appointing someone she feels is "deeply unserious."

Finally, before a commercial break, Goldberg finished the conversation by chastising Hegseth for his past observations about women who serve.

"I don't understand anybody who talks down to anybody in the military, but especially talking down to women in the military. I don't understand why you think that's a good route to start your new gig," she said. "I'm going to watch all this play out."

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Fox provided Entertainment Weekly with a statement on behalf of the network.

“Pete Hegseth has been an exceptional host on Fox & Friends and Fox Nation and a best-selling author for Fox News Books for nearly a decade," the statement reads. "His insights and analysis especially about the military resonated deeply with our viewers and made the program the major success that it is today. We are extremely proud of his work at Fox News Media and wish him the best of luck in Washington."

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.