Trump's previous acting secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan, declined to go further with his nomination process, after Trump stalled for months on officially nominating him to the permanent post. He announced his resignation on June 18.
Shanahan stepped down after media reports about domestic abuse allegations, including a 2010 incident in which Shanahan's ex-wife claimed he hit her; Shanahan said she was the aggressor. Police in Seattle, where they lived at the time, arrested Shanahan's ex-wife but dropped charges against her due to lack of evidence, according to USA Today.
Trump said he was unaware of the incident, as well as one in which Shanahan's son, William, violently beat his mother with a baseball bat, when he nominated Shanahan to be deputy secretary of defense in 2017. Shanahan's official nomination to the Pentagon's top post was delayed as the FBI investigated those incidents.
"It is unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up," Shanahan said in a statement last Tuesday.
"I believe my continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family's life and reopen wounds we have worked years to heal."