Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, was confirmed by a 54-45 Senate vote on Tuesday, without the help of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Colby, who served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development during the first Trump administration, has been supported by America First movement leaders in the face of attacks from globalists, Breitbart News reported in February.
“The DC swamp fears Bridge because they know he’s 100% loyal to my father’s America First foreign policy agenda at the Defense Department,” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, told Breitbart News at the time. “The entire MAGA movement will be watching this vote very closely.”
While a source revealed that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) reportedly had “policy concerns” with some of Colby’s stances “towards stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” McConnell was the only Republican to vote against his confirmation on Tuesday.
“Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy,” the former Senate Republican Conference leader said in a statement:
NEW — McConnell just voted against Trump’s pick for Pentagon policy chief, Bridge Colby.
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 8, 2025
“Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to… pic.twitter.com/03A4ycBVxh
“Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move,” he continued. “It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit.”
Vice President JD Vance took to X to call McConnell’s vote “one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen”:
Mitch’s vote today—like so much of the last few years of his career—is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen. https://t.co/Qg6eAOqW4J
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 8, 2025
Democrat Sens. Mark Kelly (AZ), Jack Reed (RI), and Elissa Slotkin (MI) joined the GOP in voting to confirm Colby to the Pentagon’s third-ranking position, while Republican Sen. Dave McCormick (PA) did not vote, according to the Senate Press Gallery.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who Colby will report to in his new position, congratulated the new under secretary on social media and said he looks forward to “working together to put our warfighters first and strengthen our national defense”:
Congratulations to @ElbridgeColby on his Senate confirmation as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) April 8, 2025
I look forward to working together to put our warfighters first and strengthen our national defense. pic.twitter.com/LrRAezBJzV
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
