Washington, August 5 (RHC)-- U.S. President Donald Trump has installed a nominee for a top Pentagon job in another, nearly identical position, after the Senate abruptly canceled his hearing when it became clear they didn’t have enough votes to confirm him. 

Retired general and Fox News contributor Anthony Tata, Trump’s pick to be the next undersecretary of defense for policy, will now instead be “performing the duties of” the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy -- a temporary position that does not require Senate confirmation. 

Antony Tata has come under fire for promoting Islamophobic conspiracy theories, including calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader”; calling Islam the “most oppressive violent religion I know of”; as well as pushing a conspiracy theory that former CIA Director John Brennan ordered the assassination of Trump in 2018 via a coded tweet.