Pete Hegseth

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 24th of January 2025, the United States Senate divided evenly on whether Pete Hegseth should lead the Department of Defense. Vice President JD Vance broke the tie, and the confirmation passed 51-50. Only one earlier Cabinet nominee, Betsy DeVos in 2017, had needed a vice president to settle the outcome. Hegseth also became the second-youngest defense secretary in American history, behind Donald Rumsfeld. Before that day, his working life had run through a student newspaper, reserve infantry duty, political advocacy and television. How does a path like that end at the head of the Pentagon? What did he try to change once he arrived? And why did his tenure draw fierce controversy within weeks?

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• 2. Forest Lake to Samarra

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  Peter Brian Hegseth was born on the 6th of June 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was raised in the town of Forest Lake. He is of Norwegian descent and was the first child of Brian and Penelope Haugen Hegseth. His father coached high school basketball across Minnesota until retiring in 2019. His mother is an executive business coach who has taught in a Minnesota leadership program for Republican and center-right women.

  At Forest Lake Area High School, Hegseth graduated as valedictorian in 1999. He played football and was the point guard on the basketball team, where he set school records for career three-point shots, single-season three-point shots, and single-season three-point shooting percentage. He was named all-conference twice and earned all-state honors as a senior. According to Reserve & National Guard Magazine, he picked Princeton University over an offer to play basketball for the United States Military Academy.

  Months before the September 11 attacks, Hegseth joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. At Princeton he studied politics and became publisher and editor-in-chief of The Princeton Tory, a conservative student newspaper. In April 2002 he declared that the paper would "defend the pillars of Western civilization against the distractions of diversity." The Tory's editors faulted actress Halle Berry for accepting her Best Actress Oscar for Monster's Ball "on behalf of an entire race." They also attacked The New York Times for planning to print same-sex marriage announcements. In October the paper ran an editorial calling homosexuality immoral. Nina Langsam, the president of Princeton's student government, answered with a strongly worded email to Hegseth and to the Tory's publisher, Brad Simmons. The next issue printed her message.

  After graduating in 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army through the university's ROTC program. He worked briefly as an equity-markets analyst at Bear Stearns. In 2004 he finished basic training at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, and then spent 11 months at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as a Minnesota Army National Guardsman. There he led a platoon of New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers who guarded detainees.

  By July 2005 he was back at Bear Stearns. Soon afterward he volunteered for the Iraq War as an infantry officer and received a Bronze Star Medal. He served in the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division, under Colonel Michael D. Steele. His tour began in Baghdad and moved to Samarra, where he worked as a civil affairs officer with the city council. There he formed an alliance with council member Asaad Ali Yaseen. Hegseth has described a rocket-propelled grenade that struck his vehicle and failed to detonate.

  In 2010, Hegseth deployed with the Minnesota Army National Guard as a counterinsurgency instructor. He volunteered to teach for eight months at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, and taught one of the school's final classes as American troops withdrew. After completing the tour in 2014, he was promoted to major and assigned to the Individual Ready Reserve. He joined the District of Columbia Army National Guard in June 2019 and served until March 2021. A guardsman flagged him as an "insider threat" over a tattoo reading Deus vult, and he was barred from duty at Joe Biden's inauguration. He left the reserve in January 2024 and wrote in The War on Warriors that he resigned over the incident.

  His decorations include the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Bronze Star Medal with a bronze oak leaf cluster, and campaign medals for Iraq and Afghanistan. He also earned the Expert Infantryman Badge, which makes him a de facto recipient of the Master Combat Infantryman Badge.

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• 3. Causes and Cameras

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  In August 2006, Hegseth moved to Manhattan and took a job at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. There he met a marine who worked for Vets for Freedom, a political advocacy organization. Hegseth joined that group in 2006 as an unpaid director. By 2007 he was a full-time executive director, and by 2008 he was its president. In May 2007 he appeared at a fundraiser for presidential candidate John McCain, and the group later backed McCain. Hegseth faulted Democratic nominee Barack Obama for supporting "a dangerous policy of irreversible withdrawal."

  By January 2009, Vets for Freedom owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, and an internal campaign formed to oust Hegseth. The group merged with Military Families United, and by 2011 he had been removed from its leadership. He also pursued more schooling. He enrolled at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2009, completed just one semester at first, and graduated in 2013 with a degree in public policy. In 2022, to protest classes on critical race theory, he reportedly wrote "Return to sender" on his degree and mailed it back to the university.

  Hegseth returned to Minnesota in February 2012 and entered the Republican primary for the United States Senate, with Anne Neu Brindley as his campaign manager. At the May convention he lost to Kurt Bills and ended his candidacy days later. He founded MN PAC to support similar candidates, though a third of its funds went to parties for friends and family. That year he also began leading Concerned Veterans for America, a group funded by the Koch brothers. The group attacked Obama over the 2014 Veterans Health Administration controversy.

  Hegseth left Concerned Veterans for America in January 2016 amid allegations of financial mismanagement and alcoholism. A whistleblower report accused him of fostering a sexist and hostile workplace. One whistleblower claimed he had treated organization funds as a personal expense account.

  The setbacks did not end his hopes of a government post. In December 2016, President-elect Donald Trump considered him for secretary of veterans affairs. Veterans groups objected to his view that all veterans should be able to choose private doctors. Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the pick would "be war" and "a radical departure" for the department. Trump chose David Shulkin instead, and The Washington Post noted Hegseth's lack of experience running a large organization. Hegseth later told podcaster Shawn Ryan that Trump thought him too young. When Shulkin fell out of favor in March 2018, Hegseth positioned himself again. Trump chose Robert Wilkie after consulting Hegseth and financier Isaac Perlmutter.

  Meanwhile, Roger Ailes, the Fox News executive, had given Hegseth a regular contributor role by June 2014. In 2016 he briefly hosted on TheBlaze, then began regularly hosting Fox & Friends Weekend after Ailes resigned. He became an official co-host in January 2017 and stayed until 2024. A Fox News executive quoted in Hoax, from 2020, said producer Jennifer Rauchet "was favoring Pete with airtime" and "kept putting Pete on TV."

  His on-air remarks reached the White House. In October 2018, as a migrant caravan headed toward the United States, Trump claimed that "unknown Middle Easterners" had infiltrated it. Trump apparently cited a comment Hegseth had made on Fox & Friends, which Hegseth said he had not verified. Hegseth had apparently relied on a statement by Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales about capturing 100 ISIS fighters in his country. During shutdown negotiations, Democrats neared a deal until Hegseth urged Trump to reject any deal that left out money for his border wall. After mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton in August 2019, Trump repeated claims Hegseth had made linking video games to such attacks. Hegseth said he had also discussed pardons with Trump for Clint Lorance, called a war criminal, and Mathew L. Golsteyn, an accused murderer. He added that they had discussed reversing Eddie Gallagher's demotion.

  Fox also brought legal trouble. At a Flag Day event in New York City in 2015, Hegseth threw an axe that accidentally hit a drummer from the United States Military Academy. Video of the moment spread widely online. The drummer, Jeff Prosperie, alleged severe injuries and sued three years later. The suit was resolved in an unspecified way in 2019. In the 2023 case Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network, Dominion cited a Fox & Friends Weekend segment. In it, Hegseth and co-hosts Will Cain and Rachel Campos-Duffy did not reject Rudy Giuliani's claims that Dominion's machines enabled fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

  On the network's streaming service, Fox Nation, Hegseth hosted The Miseducation of America in 2022-2023, a show criticizing "the Left's educational agenda." He also hosted Battle in the Holy Land from 2019 to 2023, The Life of Jesus in 2022-2023, and the special Battle in Bethlehem in 2019. Alongside television, he wrote books. His memoir In the Arena came out in 2016, and American Crusade followed in May 2020. Modern Warriors launched a three-book deal between Fox News Media and HarperCollins. In 2022 he co-authored Battle for the American Mind with David Goodwin of the Association of Classical Christian Schools. All four of those later titles reached The New York Times Best Seller list. The War on Warriors appeared in June 2024, five months before Trump named him to his Cabinet.

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• 4. The Confirmation Fight

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  On the 12th of November 2024, President-elect Trump named Hegseth as his nominee for secretary of defense, after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton said he would not take the job. Hegseth then ended his contract with Fox News. Many saw the choice as a search for a loyalist, and officials inside the department were surprised by his thin experience.

  The following day, according to Vanity Fair, Trump's transition team learned of a sexual assault allegation from Monterey, California, seven years earlier. The Washington Post reported that senior team officials were surprised and reconsidered the nomination. The allegation concerned October 2017, when Hegseth was scheduled to speak at a Republican women's convention at a Monterey hotel. Monterey police investigated two reported incidents, and Hegseth told them the encounter was consensual. He was never charged. District attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni declined to file charges in January 2018, saying proof beyond a reasonable doubt had not been established. The Washington Post reported that Hegseth paid the accuser under a nondisclosure agreement after she threatened legal action in 2020. His lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said she had tried to extort Hegseth.

  More pressure followed. Jane Mayer of The New Yorker detailed alleged financial mismanagement and alcohol problems at his veterans' groups. NBC News reported that his drinking worried colleagues at Fox News. By December, The New York Times said Trump had begun weighing Florida governor Ron DeSantis as an alternative. Hegseth launched a campaign to save his nomination. According to the Times, Vance led a group that included Donald Trump Jr., Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk and Matt Boyle of Breitbart News in backing him. An interview with Megyn Kelly impressed Trump. After Hegseth visited the Capitol in December, Trump publicly reaffirmed his support, and Iowa senator Joni Ernst, who had threatened the nomination, came away with a positive impression.

  Hegseth faced the Senate Committee on Armed Services on the 14th of January. He cast himself as a "warrior" and denied the allegations, as well as his earlier claims that women should not serve in combat roles. Rhode Island senator Jack Reed noted that The War on Warriors used the word "jagoff" for a Judge Advocate General officer who had reprimanded him over rocket-propelled grenades. Virginia senator Tim Kaine asked whether sexual assault, drinking or infidelity were disqualifying, and Hegseth did not answer. The committee advanced the nomination 14-13 along party lines on the 20th of January. Before that vote, his former sister-in-law Danielle sent senators an affidavit alleging he had abused his second wife and drank too much. Hegseth denied having a drinking problem and promised not to drink if confirmed.

  On the floor, every Democrat opposed him, along with Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell. Senator Thom Tillis had told majority leader John Thune the day before that he would vote no over the assault allegations. Vance persuaded him, and Tillis voiced support on X minutes before the vote. Vance swore Hegseth in the next day, the 25th of January.

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• 5. The Signal Chat

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  In March 2025, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported that Mike Waltz had accidentally added him to a Signal group chat. In that chat, Hegseth shared details of attacks in Yemen hours before they happened. Participants included Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio. A National Security Council spokesperson confirmed the messages were authentic. Hegseth denied that war plans were shared and called Goldberg "deceitful" and a "discredited so-called journalist." Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said no classified information was shared, and CIA director John Ratcliffe said Signal was authorized for such a chat.

  Goldberg later published most of the exchange. It showed Hegseth posting launch times for F-18 aircraft, MQ-9 drones and Tomahawk missiles, plus when the aircraft would reach targets and when bombs would land. Hegseth wrote that the chat contained "No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information." Both Republicans and Democrats criticized the episode. The incident distressed Hegseth, who threatened to use a polygraph on Christopher W. Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  Other revelations piled up. Der Spiegel searched commercial information providers and password leaks and found Hegseth's personal mobile number, personal email address and its password, and WhatsApp account. The Wall Street Journal reported that he brought his wife to two meetings with foreign defense officials, one with NATO officials in Brussels in February and one at the Pentagon with British Defense Secretary John Healey in March. The Associated Press reported that his brother Phil was listed as a senior adviser, joining him at meetings and on official foreign trips.

  The Washington Post reported that Hegseth had Signal installed on his computer to work around cellular problems. CNN said Ricky Buria, a former aide to defense secretary Lloyd Austin, set it up. The Associated Press said the computer sat on an unsecured internet line rather than a Department of Defense address. In April, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General opened an inquiry into the disclosure of classified information. The New York Times then reported that Hegseth had shared attack details in a second Signal chat with his wife, brother and personal lawyer.

  Hegseth suggested at the White House Easter Egg Roll that the revelations were a coordinated smear campaign. Hours later, former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot wrote in a Politico Magazine opinion piece that the department was in a "full-blown meltdown." He warned that Hegseth might lose his job. According to NPR, the White House began looking for a replacement the next day. Trump kept him, reportedly because he did not want another grueling confirmation fight, liked Hegseth's television presence, and feared that firing him would raise questions about Waltz. Trump publicly blamed "disgruntled employees." Representative Don Bacon became the first Republican House member to call for Hegseth's firing. At least five political appointees had resigned by the 24th of April, including chief of staff Joe Kesper, who stayed on as a special government employee. One employee told Politico the department had become a "free-for-all."

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• 6. Remaking the Pentagon

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  Hegseth entered office with a stated list of priorities. He promised to "revive the warrior ethos," restore trust in the military, rebuild the industrial base, speed up weapons purchasing, defend the homeland, and deter China in the Indo-Pacific. He also pledged to help Trump "end wars responsibly." A day after taking the oath, he told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States was "fully committed" to Israel's security.

  The personnel moves came fast. Hegseth revoked the security clearance and security detail of Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who had become a Trump critic, and ordered an inspector general inquiry into Milley's tenure. The Pentagon's own inspector general, Robert Storch, had been removed when Trump dismissed several inspectors general. In February 2025, Hegseth fired three top judge advocates general and Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations. "We want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice," he said, rather than "roadblocks to anything."

  Some changes were symbolic. Fort Liberty went back to the name Fort Bragg, now nominally honoring Roland L. Bragg, an obscure World War II soldier, instead of the Confederate general Braxton Bragg. At NATO headquarters in February, Hegseth opposed NATO membership for Ukraine and called a return to Ukraine's pre-Crimea borders "unrealistic." The next day he softened the line, saying membership was possible at Trump's discretion. In March he ordered US Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, an apparent effort to nudge Vladimir Putin toward negotiations.

  That same month, the department canceled 91 research studies, including work on climate change impacts. Hegseth later said the department "does not do climate change crap." In April 2025 he ordered a sweeping Army overhaul. It called for merging Army Futures Command with Training and Doctrine Command, and folding Army Forces Command, Army North and Army South into one homeland-defense headquarters. It also cut at least 20% of four-star positions. A separate memorandum reduced the civilian workforce through voluntary early retirement and deferred resignation. In September 2025, he gathered senior military leaders at Quantico, Virginia, with Trump present, and called for tighter fitness standards and opposition to "woke garbage." In December he proposed merging Northern and Southern Commands into an "Americas" Command.

  His dealings with Senator Kelly, a retired Navy captain, grew into a legal fight. On the 24th of November 2025, Hegseth ordered a review of "serious allegations of misconduct" against Kelly, mentioning possible recall to active duty for court-martial. On the 5th of January 2026 he issued a letter of censure that Kelly could not appeal, and proceedings began over Kelly's retirement grade. In February 2026, a grand jury declined to indict Kelly and others over a video. A federal judge then temporarily blocked Hegseth's actions on Kelly's rank and pension, citing a very high likelihood that Kelly would succeed on First Amendment grounds.

  Press access changed too. In October 2025, Hegseth introduced a policy requiring journalists to pledge not to solicit or use unauthorized material, including unclassified information, or lose building access. ABC, CNN, Fox News, The New York Times and The Washington Post all refused to sign. Only One America News Network complied. In March 2026, the Pentagon began banning photographers from briefings, reportedly because Hegseth disliked "unflattering" photos. Press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the limit of one representative per outlet was about using space effectively.

  Universities came next. In February 2026, Hegseth announced the end of graduate-level professional military training, fellowships and certificate programs at Harvard from the fall, citing the school's "anti-military bias." His memo listed 33 institutions under review, including Princeton, Duke, Columbia and Carnegie Mellon. Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks called cutting off access to top universities "just plain dumb." On the 2nd of March 2026, the Pentagon released a list of 20 favored partner schools, among them The Citadel, Iowa State, Clemson, Auburn, Baylor and Liberty University. Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA case officer, noted that the chancellor of William & Mary is former defense secretary Robert Gates. Harvard answered by letting active-duty military defer admission for up to four years instead of the usual one.

  In November 2025, a draft memo proposed ending the promotion boost for Eagle Scouts who join the Army and other services. It also threatened to cut Defense Department support for Scouting America, citing a lack of "masculine values" after girls were admitted in 2018. Navy Secretary John Phelan wrote his own memo calling base access a crucial recruiting tool. Critics noted that 20 percent of military academy students are former scouts. On the 27th of February 2026, Scouting America dropped its Citizenship in the Society merit badge and created a military service merit badge. It also waived registration fees for children of active-duty, National Guard and reserve families.

  The New York Times reported that from a list of about three dozen one-star promotions, Hegseth blocked two women and two Black officers. The paper called such scrutiny of a one-star list "exceedingly rare." On the 2nd of April 2026, he signed a memo letting personnel carry personal firearms on installations such as forts, bases and recruitment centers.

  The most striking fight involved artificial intelligence. Hegseth threatened to label Anthropic, maker of Claude and the only AI system authorized by the department in early 2026, a supply chain risk. He also raised the possibility of using the Defense Production Act. The deadline was the 27th of February 2026, and the contract at stake was worth $200 million. Anthropic wanted assurances that its tools would not be used to spy on Americans or to build weapons that fire without human involvement. On that deadline day, Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act, and Trump ordered every federal agency to stop using its technology. ChatGPT signed a Defense Department deal the same day. On the 6th of March, Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei said the company would challenge the decision in court. Two days later, OpenAI's head of robotics, Caitlin Kalinowski, resigned, saying surveillance without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization deserved more deliberation. In May 2026, the department announced AI deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

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• 7. Strikes and War

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  On the 28th of November 2025, The Washington Post alleged that Hegseth had given a spoken order to kill survivors of a strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean Sea. The strike took place on the 2nd of September 2025 and was led by SEAL Team 6. Admiral Frank M. "Mitch" Bradley oversaw it from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Bradley judged the survivors legitimate targets because they could theoretically have contacted other traffickers. He then ordered a second strike to carry out the order that everyone be killed. It was the first in a series of strikes on suspected traffickers.

  Hegseth's explanation has shifted over time. The Office of Legal Counsel eventually argued the strike was legal because its aim was to destroy the boat, not kill the crew. That argument rested on a secret legal memo, which legal experts have fiercely criticized. Several experts described the alleged orders as murder and a war crime. Representative Seth Moulton said, "Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder." Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Kelly also called the orders a war crime. Representative Mike Turner said such an order would be an illegal act if it occurred. Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, promised "vigorous oversight." Hegseth replied on X that the reporting was fabricated and meant to discredit "our incredible warriors." In January 2026, he was asked about a plane that attacked a suspected drug boat while carrying its weapons inside and bearing no military markings. Using unmarked aircraft in attacks violates Defense Department policy. The Pentagon said it had used the plane because it was quickest to ready.

  On the 2nd of March 2026, Hegseth described joint American and Israeli operations against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury, as a response to prolonged Iranian targeting of American interests. "We didn't start this war but under President Trump we're finishing it," he said. He noted the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, remarking, "This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change." He named the goals as destroying missile threats and the navy, and ensuring "no nukes."

  Two days later, Hegseth said the Pentagon was "investigating" reports of a deadly airstrike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, Iran. He maintained that the military "never targets civilian sites." Evidence indicated the United States most likely bombed the school. On the 10th of March he accused Iran of firing missiles from schools and hospitals, and said Iran was "badly losing" on day 10. The department also paused labor and delivery services at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Ramstein Air Base in Germany, to focus on the conflict.

  Hegseth also took aim at coverage of the war. He reportedly said the press only wanted to make the president look bad, and that when "a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front-page news." At a March 2026 press conference, he urged reporters to rewrite headlines such as "Mideast war intensifies" into "Iran increasingly desperate." He called a CNN report on the Strait of Hormuz "fundamentally unserious." In April 2026, he compared the press to the biblical Pharisees, "the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time."

  His statements about other powers changed quickly. On the 6th of March, he dismissed reports that Russia was giving Iran intelligence on American positions, saying only Iranians who thought they would live should be worried. Four days later, he warned Russia against intervening after further reports of alleged targeting help. Early in March he had called China "irrelevant" to the conflict. By the 31st of March, after reports of technological support for Tehran, he said the United States was "addressing and mitigating" Chinese involvement. On the 16th of April, he announced that Beijing had given the White House high-level assurances that it would send no weapons to Iran.

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• 8. Faith, Ink and Family

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  In 2004, Hegseth married Meredith Schwarz at the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Minnesota. She had graduated from his high school, and their class voted them "most likely to marry." She filed for divorce in December 2008 after he admitted to five affairs. He had been dating Samantha Deering, whom he met at Vets For Freedom. They married in 2010 and have three children, and they filed for divorce in 2017. In 2019, Hegseth married Jennifer Rauchet, the Fox & Friends producer, at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck in New Jersey, with the Trump family attending. He had fathered a child with Rauchet while still married to Deering. His mother, Penny, had written an angry email in April 2018 accusing him of mistreating women for years. She later said she apologized right away, and on Fox News she called him "redeemed, forgiven, changed." Samantha's sister Danielle told senators that Samantha once hid in a closet and had an escape plan. Hegseth's lawyer dismissed the claims.

  In In the Arena, Hegseth described his early Christianity as "more out of diligent habit than deep conviction." After the September 11 attacks, he wrote, he grew to hate Islamic terrorism and felt repelled by what he called the Princeton chapel's "gospel of moral relativism." He told Nashville Christian Family that a religious transformation came in 2018, after he and Jennifer began attending Colts Neck Community Church. They wanted their children at Jonathan Edwards Classical Academy, a Christian school, so they moved to Nashville, Tennessee, three years later. There they joined Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a church in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Hegseth supports that group's co-founder, Douglas Wilson. In August 2025, he shared a CNN video featuring Wilson with approving comments. The video included a pastor from Wilson's church calling for the repeal of women's right to vote. Hegseth has also repeatedly praised the Crusades, saying people who enjoy Western culture's benefits should "thank a crusader."

  His tattoos carry the same themes. One across his right biceps reads Deus vult, Latin for "God wills." On his right breast is a Jerusalem cross. The combination has been linked with right-wing extremist groups. Near the biceps tattoo is the Arabic word kafir, which some Muslims criticized as Islamophobic. His right forearm shows the 1754 political cartoon Join, or Die, a cross and sword with the Hebrew name Yeshua, and the words "We the People." On his back is the coat of arms of the 187th Infantry Regiment, with its motto Ne Desit Virtus, meaning "Let Valor Not Fail." He also has a Chi Rho Christogram. Snopes found that at least two of the tattoos depict symbols associated with Christian nationalism, though Hegseth may not hold those views himself.

  At the Pentagon, faith became policy-adjacent. In May 2025, Hegseth began monthly worship services during business hours, and in February 2026 the department invited defense contractors. Some contractors said Christians gained "face time" with officials that Jewish, Muslim and other non-Christian contractors would not get. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and the Freedom From Religion Foundation both raised objections. The Pentagon said it did not track who attended. In March 2026, soon after the Iran war began, military leaders reportedly told troops it was "part of God's divine plan." One commander reportedly quoted the Book of Revelation and said the war would bring the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation received more than 200 complaints from 50 installations. Members of Congress, including Representative Chrissy Houlahan, asked the military inspector general to investigate whether such statements violated Defense Department religious neutrality rules.

  On the 3rd of April 2026, Good Friday, an email from Air Force leaders reminded staff of a Protestant service at the Pentagon Chapel with "No Catholic Mass." A 40-year Pentagon employee said it was the first time a Catholic Good Friday service had not been offered there. Twelve days later, Hegseth led a Pentagon prayer session in which he quoted a prayer built on lines from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, including part of Ezekiel 25:17. The prayer had reportedly been used by the search and rescue team that saved two downed airmen in Iran earlier that month.

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