Former Fox News host and decorated military veteran Pete Hegseth represents a transformational change for the Department of Defense, author John Waters said.

The author spoke with Real Clear Politics host Andrew Walworth about President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial appointment for Secretary of Defense last week where he praised the veteran who has degrees from both Harvard and Princeton.

“It’s unexpected to many people, perhaps in the Beltway, who work at think tanks and whose life is politics, though they don’t run for office. For someone who is a war veteran and not from D.C., I think it’s a strong and honest choice,” the author said. “Pete Hegseth has said exactly what he wants to do. He wrote a book earlier this year, ‘The War on Warriors.’ President Trump mentioned it in his announcement of Hegseth, and he said he wants to attack the institution. He wants to root out what he thinks is extremism and ideologies. He wants to return the Defense Department to meritocracy, to fighting wars, to lethality, and to standards of excellence that are fair across the board.”

“In 2003, when he graduated from Princeton and went to work at Bear Stearns, the now-defunct investment bank, he had the world open to him. But for some reason, he chose to become an infantry officer in the Army. He didn’t just decide to serve at a time of war in Iraq and Afghanistan; he decided to serve as an infantry officer. He knew he would walk the ground. He knew he would lead young men from across the country, young men 18 and 19 years old, who were going to volunteer from Oklahoma and Nebraska. Regardless, he chose to be their leader,” he said.

“He’s presenting a transformational type of agenda, which is totally in line with the president, so it should not be a surprise,” Walworth noted further. “Reinstating a ban on transgender troops and abortion travel policies, reconsidering the erasure of Robert E. Lee and others from our military installations, rolling back diversity programs — all of these positions are controversial, probably for many inside the Pentagon, and will lead to conflict and confrontation.”

“If the job is transformation, you may not want someone with a long history of experience in bureaucracy and administration,” he said. “I think back to something Eliot Cohen told me, a distinguished professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins and a former senior defense official in the Bush administration. He said being smart is overrated. There are plenty of smart people in D.C.; you hire smart. What we need are people who have judgment in a crisis.”