US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign is revolving around several of his cabinet nominees as they come under intense scrutiny, including allegations of misconduct.

Pete Hegseth, his defense secretary, denies a sexual assault allegation, and potential attorney general Matt Gaetz is at the center of an ethics investigation.

Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is facing severe criticism for his vaccine skepticism.

Trump will need the U.S. Senate to confirm those nominees when he takes office in January, and while the chamber will be controlled by his fellow Republicans, his cabinet picks will face an intense crisis during bipartisan hearings.

On Friday, police said Hegseth, the Pentagon nominee, was under investigation for an alleged sexual assault in California in 2017.

Hegseth, the Fox News host and veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, has never been arrested and denies wrongdoing.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said: “Mr. Hegseth has strongly denied all allegations and no charges have been filed.”

Meanwhile, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported that Hegseth was once flagged as a potential “threat from the inside” by fellow soldiers who believed he had a white supremacist tattoo.

Hegseth has denied any links to extremist groups.

A former member of the Minnesota National Guard has a tattoo on his bicep of “Deus Vult,” a Latin phrase meaning “God wills,” a rallying cry for Christian crusaders in the Middle Ages.

Retired Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither told CBS: “We looked into that tattoo and it had links to extremist groups.” He said he passed the ink on to the management body.

US Vice President-elect JD Vance rushed to Hegseth’s defense, saying the Latin phrase was nothing more than a Christian motto and accusing the Associated Press, which first reported the story on the tattoo, of “disgusting anti-Christian bigotry” .

Hegseth was barred from serving as an officer in Washington DC during the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021.

In a book published earlier this year, he said he was turned down for the job because of his tattoos.

Meanwhile, Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, is battling allegations of misconduct while a congressman.

He resigned from his Florida seat in the US House of Representatives on Thursday, hours after Trump nominated him to lead the US Justice Department.

His exit halted the release of a congressional report into allegations of sexual misconduct, illegal drug use and misuse of campaign funds.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, on Friday asked that the report remain secret because Gaetz is no longer a member of the body — even amid bipartisan demands that it be shared as part of his vetting for the role of top U.S. attorney . .

Hours later, new allegations surfaced from a lawyer representing two witnesses to the alleged sexual misconduct.

The lawyer, Joe Leppard, told CBS that one of his clients saw Gaetz having sex with an underage girl in Florida in 2017. Mr. Leppard urged lawmakers to release the House Ethics Committee report.

The Justice Department last year investigated the allegations and declined to file charges against Gaetz.

He previously denied claims he had sex with a 17-year-old while he was an adult at a party in Orlando.

The 42-year-old Florida lawmaker wrote on X on Friday that “lies were used to try to destroy me.”

Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s nominee to serve as head of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is meanwhile facing a history of vaccine skepticism.

Shares of vaccine makers and healthcare firms around the world fell sharply on Friday as investors reacted to the nomination of a campaigner who has vowed to crack down on “Big Pharma”.

The head of the American Public Health Association, which has 25,000 health professional members, told the BBC that Kennedy’s criticism of immunizations “has already caused great health damage in the country”.

George C Benjamin added that Kennedy was “absolutely the wrong guy for it”.

Trump himself has so far not directly addressed criticism of his election.

The president-elect is still hiring for his new administration, with positions such as FBI director and treasury secretary still to be named.