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Pete Hegseth

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Pete Hegseth
Headshot of Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth in 2021
United States Secretary of Defense
Presumptive nominee
Assuming office
TBD
Appointed byDonald Trump
SucceedingLloyd Austin
Personal details
Born
Peter Brian Hegseth

(1980-06-06) June 6, 1980 (age 44)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouses
  • Meredith Schwarz
    (m. 2004; div. 2009)
  • Samantha Deering
    (m. 2010; div. 2017)
  • Jennifer Rauchet
    (m. 2019)
Children7
Education
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service2003–2014, 2019–2021
RankMajor
UnitMinnesota Army National Guard
Battles/wars
Awards

Peter Brian Hegseth (/ˈhɛɡsɛθ/; born June 6, 1980) is an American television presenter, author, and former Army National Guard officer who has been announced as the forthcoming nominee for United States Secretary of Defense in Donald Trump's second cabinet. A political commentator for Fox News since 2014 and weekend co-host of Fox & Friends from 2017 to 2024, he was previously the executive director of Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.

Hegseth has been active in conservative and Republican politics since his undergraduate days at Princeton University. As a National Guardsman he served at Guantánamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2016, he emerged as a supporter of Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, and he served as an occasional advisor to Trump throughout the latter's first term as president. Following Hegseth's encouragement, in 2019 Trump pardoned three soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes. Hegseth was considered to lead the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration, but David Shulkin was tapped instead.

On November 12, 2024, President-elect Trump nominated Hegseth to serve as Secretary of Defense.

Early life and education

[edit]

Hegseth was born on June 6, 1980, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Brian, a basketball coach, and Penny Hegseth.[1][2][3] He was raised in nearby Forest Lake[4] and is of Norwegian descent on both sides of the family.[5] He attended Forest Lake Area High School, where he played football and basketball, graduating in 1999 as valedictorian of his class.

Hegseth went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts in politics at Princeton University in 2003.[6][7] While there, he wrote for The Princeton Tory magazine[8] and played basketball for the Tigers under coach John Thompson III.[9][10] Their team made the NCAA tournament in 2001.[11][12]

In 2013, he received a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[13]

Military career

[edit]

Early career

[edit]

After graduating from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst and was also commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard.[14] In 2004, his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an infantry platoon leader and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, Iraq, where he served first as an infantry platoon leader and later as civil-military operations officer. During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.[15][citation needed]

Return to active duty

[edit]

Hegseth returned to active duty in 2012 as a captain.[16] He deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard and acted as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul.[citation needed] In 2014, Hegseth was promoted to the rank of major and left active duty to be assigned to the Army Individual Ready Reserve.[17][18]

National guard service

[edit]

In 2019, Hegseth rejoined the National Guard after five years in the Individual Ready Reserve.[18]

Biden inauguration controversy

[edit]

Hegseth was one of 12 troops who were removed from the group of National Guardsmen providing security for the inauguration of Joe Biden after he was discovered to have a tattoo that has been associated with some white supremacist and nationalist groups.[19][20][21]

In 2020, he volunteered to be one of the up-to-25,000 Guard troops authorized by the Pentagon to be put on active duty to help safeguard the January 20, 2021, inauguration. On January 14, 2021, a fellow Guard member who was the unit's security manager and on an anti-terrorism team sent an email to the unit's leadership notifying them of a tattoo on Hegseth's bicep reading "Deus Vult", a phrase the security manager determined was associated with the Crusades and, in the 21st century, with white supremacists who use it to invoke the idea of a white Christian medieval past.[19] Shortly thereafter, Hegseth was told to stay home from the event.[19]

Hegseth has said that his National Guard superiors removed him because of his Jerusalem cross tattoo,[20] which they determined was connected to extremism but which he said is simply a Christian symbol.[22] He wrote in his book that this caused him to resign in disgust, and his last day in uniform was March 31, 2021.[18]

In January 2024, he officially separated from the National Guard's Individual Ready Reserve, he said in his book.[23]

Conservative activism

[edit]

Upon return from Iraq, Hegseth worked briefly at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. According to his LinkedIn page, Hegseth left the conservative think tank in 2007 to work as executive director at Vets For Freedom.[24] His role included responding to the Federal Election Commission as treasurer of the organization.[25][26] He worked at Vets for Freedom until 2012.[24] The organization advocated a greater troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.[24]

In 2012, Hegseth formed the political action committee MN PAC.[24] An APM Reports analysis found that while Hegseth ran the MN PAC political action committee, one-third of its $15,000 in funds were spent on Christmas parties for families and friends. Campaign finance laws in Minnesota do not prohibit such spending. Less than half of the PAC's resources were spent on candidates, and as of March 2018, the PAC had closed its account with the state board.[24]

Hegseth was the executive director for Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers.[27] The group advocated greater privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).[27] According to his LinkedIn page, he left the group in 2015.[27]

While Hegseth was its chief executive, Concerned Veterans for America hired his brother Philip to work for the non-profit and paid him $108,000 according to tax records from 2016 and 2017. Asked about it, Hegseth's lawyer said that Philip, a May 2015 university graduate, was qualified for the media relations job, and noted there is no prohibition against private entities hiring family members.[24]

Hegseth was considered to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration, but was rejected in favor of David Shulkin in 2017.[28][29]

Senate campaign

[edit]

In 2012, Hegseth ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota.[24] He withdrew from the race after the May 2012 convention, but before the Republican primary election in August,[30][31] both events in which Kurt Bills won the nomination.

Political commentary

[edit]

During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Hegseth initially backed Marco Rubio, then Ted Cruz, and ultimately Donald Trump.[24] Since then, Hegseth has emerged as a strong Trump supporter.[24] As a Fox News personality, he frequently criticized the media and Democrats. He criticized special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[24] Hegseth has appeared on Fox News Channel, as well as on CNN and MSNBC.[32]

Fox News

[edit]
Hegseth in West Palm Beach, Florida, December 2020

Hegseth joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014.[24][33] In December 2018, Hegseth co-hosted Fox News Channel's All-American New Year with Fox Business Network's Kennedy, during which a pre-recorded telephone interview between him and President Trump was broadcast.[34][35] He has been a regular guest on Unfiltered with Dan Bongino since 2021.[36][37]

On June 14, 2015, Hegseth accidentally hit a West Point drummer while axe throwing during a live segment in honor of Flag Day. Hegseth missed the target and the axe hit one of the people behind it. Footage of the accident soon became popular on the internet. In 2018 the drummer filed a lawsuit against Fox and Hegseth alleging that he has suffered "severe and serious personal injuries to his mind and body," and "permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement and loss of body function" as a result of their negligence.[38]

In May 2018, Hegseth mocked The New York Times for ostensibly not covering a story about the capture of five ISIS leaders, referring to the paper as the "failing New York Times" even though the paper had already filed a report on the story.[39]

Campaign to pardon war criminals

[edit]

In May 2019, it was reported that Trump was considering pardoning several US military service members who had been convicted of committing war crimes, including a veteran set to stand trial for shooting indiscriminately at civilians, hitting a girl and an elderly man,[40] as well as fatally stabbing a captured teenage Islamic State (ISIS) member while he was receiving medical treatment. The Daily Beast and CNN later reported that Hegseth had sought to convince Trump to pardon these individuals for months. At the same time, Hegseth was discussing these cases on Fox News without disclosing that he had advised Trump to pardon them.[41][42] In November 2019, Trump pardoned three service members accused or convicted of war crimes. Shortly before Trump announced his decision, Hegseth suggested that Trump was about to take "imminent action" in the cases.[43][44]

U.S. Secretary of Defense

[edit]

In November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he intended to nominate Hegseth to serve as the next secretary of defense.[45] Hegseth ended his deal with Fox News that month so he could take the position.[46][47][48]

Political positions

[edit]

Hegseth's political positions have been described as Christian nationalist.[citation needed] In his book, American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, he said he believes there are "irreconcilable differences between the Left and the Right in America leading to perpetual conflict that cannot be resolved through the political process". He furthermore called for an "American crusade", which he described as "a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom". In a May 2024 interview where he talked about education, Hegseth said "Democracy, democracy, defend the democracy. Do you know what our founders did not want us to be? A democracy."[49] Hegseth has explicitly rejected democracy in his book equating it to a leftist demand, and announced support for election-rigging through gerrymandering to "screw Democrats".[50]

Hegseth said that if Democrats won the 2020 election, there would be a "national divorce" and that "The military and police ... will be forced to make a choice" and "Yes, there will be some form of civil war." He also said that conservatives must "mock, humiliate, intimidate, and crush our leftist opponents", to "attack first" to deal with a left he equates with "sedition", and said that his book "lays out the strategy we must employ in order to defeat America's internal enemies". Hegseth has described America's internal and domestic enemies as leftists; progressives and Democrats as "enemies" of freedom, the US constitution, and America. Hegseth has said that victory for America includes the end of globalism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, Islamism, genderism and leftism, the last of which he refers to as a "false religion" and "specter" that views non-believers as "infidels". He has announced his support for American nationalism and that he believes Americans must build a border wall, raise tariffs, learn English and "fight back".[50]

Colleges

[edit]

In August 2019, he lamented that "young kids voting" are worried about the adverse effects of climate change. Hegseth also criticized universities for teaching students about "environmentalism and radical environmentalism" rather than a "real threat" such as Islamic extremism.[51]

In June 2022, on a Fox & Friends Weekend segment, Hegseth crossed out Harvard on his diploma, writing in "Critical Theory" and then marking "Return to Sender" across the central body as a protest of Harvard and other such universities. "People will say 'this is just a stunt, you still have a degree' and that's fine. I went, I got the degree, I walked to the classes and all that, but I hope this is a statement that as conservatives and patriots, if we love this country, we can't keep sending our kids and elevating them to universities that are poisoning their mind. I may have survived it, but a lot of kids go there and buy into 'critical theory university,' and that's how we get future leaders, Supreme Court Justices, Senators, others, who see America as an evil place. And Harvard is a factory for that kind of thinking" he said. Hegseth then declared his intention to return the diploma to Harvard.[52]

Foreign affairs

[edit]

Hegseth has been sharply critical of America's NATO allies, writing "Outdated, outgunned, invaded, and impotent. Why should America, the European 'emergency contact number' for the past century, listen to self-righteous and impotent nations asking us to honor outdated and one-sided defense arrangements they no longer live up to?" and "Maybe if NATO countries actually ponied up for their own defense — but they don't. They just yell about the rules while gutting their militaries and yelling at America for help" in his book.[53] In 2022, he said the Russian invasion of Ukraine "pales in comparison" to "wokeness" and crime.[54] In March 2022, he called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.[55] He said: "What's at stake is repelling an authoritarian who basically is saying 'I want the Soviet Union back, I want Ukraine back, I want Kyiv back."[56] He has also voiced criticism towards US military aid to Ukraine.[53]

Hegseth has referred to Israel as "God's chosen people" in a 2016 interview.[53] Hegseth spoke at the 2018 Arutz Sheva conference in Jerusalem, where he stated "there's no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount is not possible."[57] Speaking at the National Council of Young Israel gala in New York City the same year, he said "Zionism and Americanism are the front lines of Western civilization and freedom in our world today."[58] He opposed the two-state solution and supported Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.[59] Hegseth has stated that Israel and other international allies can help America defeat its "domestic enemies" which he describers as leftists, progressives, and Democrats.[50]

Hegseth has called Iran's government an "evil regime". In January 2020, Hegseth expressed strong support for president Trump's decision to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.[60][61] He also called on Trump to bomb the Iranian homeland, including cultural sites if they were storing weapons.[62] Hegseth has said China is creating a military "specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America".[53]

Islam

[edit]

In American Crusade, Hegseth says Islam "is not a religion of peace, and it never has been" and claims "all modern Muslim countries are either formal or de facto no-go zones for practicing Christians and Jews". He said Islam was "almost entirely captured and leveraged by Islamists." He claimed Islamists plan to demographically, culturally and politically "conquer" Europe and America, allying with secularism to crush "our nation's Judeo-Christian institutions". He said Islamists plan to "seed the West with as many Muslims as possible" and "thanks to their very high birth rates relative to native populations and their strategically insular culture — the sons and daughters of those migrants and refugees multiply in greater numbers than do native citizens." He pointed out the elections of Muslim officials in the United Kingdom and the increase of the Muslim population in Europe to say that the United States will follow the same path without an intervention.[63] Hegseth has stated that the end of the US military would allow "Islamists" to "wipe America and Israel off the map".[50]

Military

[edit]

Hegseth has said that he wants to fire General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hegseth also wants to purge the military of "woke" generals and DEI programs, saying that "any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI, woke shit has got to go."[64] Hegseth also criticized the US military slogan "our diversity is our strength", calling it the "dumbest phrase on planet Earth".[65] He has criticized efforts to counter extremism within the US military, writing "Rooting out 'extremism,' today's generals push rank-and-file patriots out of their formations" in his 2024 book, The War on Warriors.[49] Hegseth has opposed including women in combat roles, saying in 2024 "I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles."[54] He also opposes transgender troops in the military.[63]

COVID-19

[edit]

In February 2020, amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Hegseth said that Democrats were "rooting for coronavirus to spread. They're rooting for it to grow. They're rooting for the problem to get worse."[37] The next month, Hegseth urged healthy people to get the virus to build immunity.[66] Hegseth suggested the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was made up by Democrats to help them in the 2022 midterm elections, saying, "Count on a variant about every October, every two years."[67]

January 6 Capitol attack

[edit]

Hegseth has defended the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling them patriots who had been "re-awoken to the reality of what the left has done" to the country. He has defended January 6 figure Jacob Chansley in particular.

He has also that only a handful of military personnel had been at the attack.[68] In fact, nearly 20% of defendants charged in relation to the attack, and about 12% of the participants in general, were current or former members of the U.S. military.[69][70]

[edit]

In October 2017, a 30-year-old conservative group staffer accused Hegseth of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room after he spoke at a California Federation of Republican Women event in Monterey, California.[71]

The accuser, who is listed in the police reports as Jane Doe, said she observed Hegseth behaving "inappropriately" with women and confronted Hegseth.[72] According to the police report, two other women interviewed by the police said that "Hegseth had placed a hand on their thighs and invited them up to his hotel room" and that one women said that "she asked Doe to help ward him off." [73] After coming up to Hegseth, Doe reportedly remembers that Hegseth said he was a "nice guy" and then the next memory she has was "being in an unknown room with Hegseth."[74] Hegseth allegedly took away her phone and blocked her exit.[75]

She went to an emergency room four days later[76] for a rape kit test,[77] where she told the nurse she suspected that a drug may have been slipped into her drink, given that she could not fully recall what had happened. She said that she "remembered saying 'no' a lot".[75] The nurse informed police, who started an investigation.[78] A hotel employee recalled Hegseth as being "very intoxicated" while Jane Doe did not appear to be drunk.[75] In 2024, according to a knowledgeable source, Hegseth described the allegations as a "he-said, she-said" dispute about a consensual encounter.[79]

No charges were filed.[71] Hegseth paid the accuser as part of a non-disclosure agreement in 2020. Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, said his client settled only because he feared his career would suffer if her allegations were made public. Parlatore said Hegseth was the victim of "blackmail" and "false claims of sexual assault".[80]

Personal life

[edit]

Hegseth married his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, in 2004; they divorced in 2009. In 2010 he married his second wife, Samantha Deering; they have three children. In August 2017, while still married to Deering, Hegseth had a daughter with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet.[24] He and Deering divorced in August 2017. Hegseth and Rauchet, who has three young children from her first marriage, married in August 2019.[81]

Hegseth lives in Tennessee. He is a member of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship,[82] a church in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.[83][84]

Hegseth has several tattoos, among them a Jerusalem cross on his chest, and one reading "Deus Vult", a Latin phrase meaning "God wills it" on his bicep.[85]

Books

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Hegseth wrote the foreword to the 2017 book The Case Against the Establishment (ISBN 978-1-6826-1474-7) by Nick Adams and Dave Erickson.[86] His books include:

Awards, decorations, and badges

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Combat Infantryman Badge
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze Star (x2)
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Army Commendation Medal (x2)
National Defense Service Medal
Bronze star
Bronze star
Afghanistan Campaign Medal (with 2 service stars)
Bronze star
Bronze star
Iraq Campaign Medal (with 2 service stars)
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Armed Forces Reserve Medal (with bronze hourglass device)
Army Service Ribbon
Army Overseas Service Ribbon
NATO Medal (ISAF)

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
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  53. ^ a b c d "Who is Pete Hegseth, the pro-Israel Fox News host picked to head Pentagon?". Al Jazeera. November 13, 2024. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
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