{"id":21686,"date":"2019-04-27T16:55:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T16:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/04\/27\/rep-adam-kinzinger-says-hes-open-to-air-force-secretary-job\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:56:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:56:51","slug":"rep-adam-kinzinger-says-hes-open-to-air-force-secretary-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/04\/27\/rep-adam-kinzinger-says-hes-open-to-air-force-secretary-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Adam Kinzinger says he\u2019s open to Air Force secretary job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/02\/14\/this-congressman-in-the-air-national-guard-just-got-deployed-to-the-border\/\" target=_blank>Rep. Adam Kinzinger<\/a> all but threw his hat in the ring for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/03\/08\/air-force-secretary-wilson-resigning\/\" target=_blank>U.S. Air Force secretary<\/a> on Saturday, saying he would \u201cstrongly consider\u201d it if President Donald Trump made the offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf the president would determine I would be the candidate, the person that he wanted to lead the Air Force, I would certainly strongly consider it,\u201d Kinzinger, R-Ill., said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/6030610385001\/#sp=show-clips\" target=_blank>Fox News interview<\/a> on Saturday. Kinzinger was asked about a rumor that he was a candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Kinzinger said, \u201cI like my job now,\u201d he felt \u201cnew-generation leadership\u201d would be great for the service, adding that he understands the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/04\/11\/the-militarys-stunning-fighter-pilot-shortage-one-in-four-billets-is-empty\/\" target=\"_blank\">pilot shortage<\/a> impacting the Air Force. \u201cBut I know [Trump\u2019s] going to make a great decision. There\u2019s a lot of great people, but it\u2019s a very transitional time for the Air Force. It would be an honor to be considered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 41-year-old would be a notable choice, as he would be the first Iraq War veteran nominated to serve as a secretary of an armed service, and because Kinzinger has both publicly criticized the president and more recently emerged as a supporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/02\/27\/heres-why-the-national-guard-is-probing-a-congressmans-criticism-of-wisconsins-governor\/\" target=\"_blank\">deploying<\/a> with his Air National Guard unit to the U.S.-Mexico border, he has supported Trump\u2019s declaration of a national emergency to use Defense Department funding to build a wall there.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/03\/07\/national-guard-no-problem-with-kinzinger-criticism-of-wisconsin-governors-decision-to-withdraw-troops-from-border\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3092813.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">National Guard: No problem with Kinzinger criticism of Wisconsin governor<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Wisconsin National Guard has decided an Illinois congressman who serves as a Guard member did nothing wrong when he criticized Gov. Tony Evers\u2019 decision to withdraw troops from the U.S. southern border.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, the five-term congressman\u2019s prospects are unclear, at least in part because Trump hasn\u2019t nominated a defense secretary to lead the Pentagon and because Air Force Under Secretary Matthew Donovan is also seen as a contender for the top civilian Air Force job, at least in an acting capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The speculation follows Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson\u2019s announcement she will resign at the end of May to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither Kinzinger\u2019s office, the Pentagon nor White House sources on Friday would confirm or deny that Kinzinger was under consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aerospace analyst Rebecca Grant, of IRIS Independent Research, said it\u2019s probable the White House will boost Donovan, the service\u2019s No. 2 civilian, to the acting Air Force secretary role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Donovan, a former F-15 pilot and policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee under its late chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is known as a capable administrator with a deep knowledge of Air Force technology and policy issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a presidential election coming up in a matter of months, and the Trump administration focused on that and other issues, it makes sense to elevate Donovan to the top Air Force post, at least for the short term, Grant said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Every White House has trouble getting nominations cranked through \u2014 I think this one particularly, and particularly at this point in time. They have a lot on their minds that\u2019s not to do with getting all the paperwork done for the nominees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;To me, Matt Donovan looks like an easy choice given the number of acting officials that are there [at the Pentagon], and I get the sense that we have a holdup on nominations from the Senate side, and the White House is even less efficient than usual in getting people through. So I&#8217;d say, 60-40, they&#8217;ll keep Donovan,\u201d Grant said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a shrewd leader and would be a very sound choice.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kinzinger is serving Illinois\u2019 16th District, which he won by 14 percentage points in last year\u2019s election. Before selecting Kinzinger, the White House would have to weigh the political cost \u2014 with Republicans already the minority in the House \u2014 of leaving his seat unfilled or of a special election to fill it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawmaker flies the Air Guard\u2019s RC-26 surveillance plane and recently wrote a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/opinion\/commentary\/2019\/02\/14\/air-guards-rc-26-decision-undermines-trumps-border-security-priorities\/\" target=_blank>commentary for Air Force Times<\/a> calling for the Guard to reverse its decision to retire the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the active-duty Air Force, he piloted the KC-135 Stratotanker and flew missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and South America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kinzinger met with Trump in early March after he deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border with his Air National Guard unit. He said he was undecided whether the situation constituted a national emergency before he went there, but later said he \u201ccame back absolutely convinced this is a national emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/opinion\/2019\/01\/24\/congress-is-doing-damage-control\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-996942026.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Congress is doing damage control<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">What began as American nationalism, perhaps, has spurred something else.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A sharp critic of Trump at times, Kinzinger denounced him in appearances on CNN. Kinzinger said before the 2016 election that he couldn\u2019t see himself supporting Trump\u2019s candidacy and that he was \u201cdisgusted\u201d by Trump\u2019s comments lashing out at Republicans who lost their midterm election races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also, in 2016, called Trump\u2019s foreign policy \u201cnarcissistic\u201d and the president\u2019s conditional support of NATO \u201cutterly disastrous.\u201d Kinzinger has since said he would defy the White House in favor of tough sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s government, and called Trump\u2019s video defending his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria \u201ctacky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Trump, who is often characterized as a man who demands loyalty and is slow to forgive perceived slights, has demonstrated a willingness to work with those who have criticized him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Kinzinger is nominated, he would be the first veteran of the war on terror to do so. Former Army Under Secretary Patrick Murphy, the first Iraq War veteran elected to Congress, served as acting Army secretary for five months in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Iraq War vet all but threw his hat in the ring for Air Force secretary, saying he would \u201cstrongly consider\u201d it if President Donald Trump made the offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[7,8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446,3384],"class_list":["post-21686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4RAYY5MM25DOHOM7KCT6X3XRQY","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2019\/04\/27\/rep-adam-kinzinger-says-hes-open-to-air-force-secretary-job\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rep. Adam Kinzinger says he\u2019s open to Air Force secretary job - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Iraq War vet all but threw his hat in the ring for Air Force secretary, saying he would \u201cstrongly consider\u201d it if President Donald Trump made the offer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rep. 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