US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated military veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as defense secretary when the Republican takes back the White House in January, according to an AFP report.
Facing scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault and medieval-themed tattoos linked to extremist groups, Donald Trump's defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth would typically struggle to be confirmed for the role. However, these are not ordinary times in Washington. Hegseth, a Fox News host, was selected by Trump on Tuesday in one of several nominations that surprised even some within his reshaped Republican Party and posed a challenge to the Senate.
To assume the position as head of the Pentagon and oversee 3.4 million employees, Hegseth will need confirmation from the upper house—and Trump is publicly pressuring lawmakers to demonstrate loyalty to his agenda. Recent revelations about the 44-year-old have complicated his path to power, including an investigation for sexual assault in California in 2017. No charges were filed over an incident in a Monterey hotel where an unnamed accuser filed a police report, but the claim has raised questions about the vetting process for the former soldier. According to the Washington Post, Hegseth paid an undisclosed sum to the woman several years later as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual.
His tattoos have also sparked controversy, leading to his removal from his Army National Guard unit when it was called up for the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2020. Speaking on a podcast with fellow veteran Shawn Ryan earlier this month, he revealed that one of his fellow soldiers flagged him as a possible white nationalist due to his body art. He attributed this to the medieval Jerusalem Cross on his chest, but he also has the words 'Deus Vult' on his bicep—a phrase meaning 'God wills it' that was used by anti-Muslim crusaders in the Middle Ages. European medieval imagery and slogans have been widely adopted by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in recent years, but Hegseth claims his tattoos merely reflect his faith.
'It's a Christian symbol,' the author of a 2020 book entitled 'American Crusade' said of the Jerusalem Cross. His handling of medieval weaponry recently went viral after a video resurfaced of him participating in a televised axe-throwing contest, where he missed the target and struck a bystander, narrowly avoiding serious injury.
Hegseth's resume includes combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he rose to the rank of major in the National Guard—a status far below the generals and admirals he would oversee at the Pentagon. He boasts degrees from prestigious US universities, including an undergraduate from Princeton and a master's from Harvard. Known for his square-jawed and outspoken demeanor, he caught Trump's attention on the 'Fox & Friends Weekend' show that he co-hosts.
'You know the military better than anyone,' Trump told him during an appearance in early June, adding that he often thought about putting him in charge of the Pentagon. A former Republican operative who vetted Hegseth when Trump was considering him for the more junior veterans affairs secretary in 2016 wrote this week that he remained unqualified and an 'empty vessel.' Lacking significant experience in foreign affairs or congressional politics, Hegseth's only civilian management credential was being CEO of a small non-profit, according to former operative Justin Higgins in an MSNBC article.
'It's not hard to imagine that he would do and say whatever Trump wants,' Higgins added. Hegseth's primary policy focus in his books and media appearances is addressing what he terms 'woke shit' in the armed forces—and he has expressed support for purging the top brass. He told Ryan on his podcast that his experiences taught him that 'the bigotry we saw on the outside (of the army) should not be tolerated inside the military' but that progressive efforts to tackle racism and sexism had gone too far.
'The army that I enlisted in, that I swore an oath to in 2001 and was commissioned in 2003 looks a lot different than the army of today because we're focused on a lot of the wrong things,' he said.
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