Pete Hegseth is best known for his time at Fox News, but to dismiss the U.S. Army national guardsman as nothing more than a TV host would be misleading.
President-elect Donald Trump selected Hegseth to be the next secretary of defense, and while his confirmation in the Senate is far from guaranteed, given questions about his qualifications, he could be the leader behind Trump’s promised reforms of the Department of Defense. Hegseth was a major supporter of the former president during his first term, and they view the department similarly.
Hegseth, who has become a household name with about a decade in various on-air roles at Fox News, was born in Minnesota in 1980. He enlisted in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in May 2001 while attending Princeton University. He was on Princeton’s basketball team but did not play much, and he led the Princeton Tory, a school magazine with a conservative viewpoint.
During his time leading the paper, he sought to instill “‘legitimate conservatism as a philosophy’ and ‘facilitate a campus discussion,’” he wrote at the close of his term, according to a recent article by Princeton Alumni Weekly. Hegseth graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in politics, and he later went on to receive a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University.
His first deployment was to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in 2004, and he was there for about a year. Hegseth returned home for a couple of months before he was deployed to Iraq, where he was for another year. During his year in Iraq, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal twice, a Bronze Star Medal, and several other awards.
Upon his return stateside, Hegseth worked briefly at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research before moving on to lead the Vets For Freedom as the executive director. He also served as the CEO of another veteran advocacy group, the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America.
In 2010, Hegseth testified in Justice Elena Kagan’s, then-Supreme Court nominee, confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He urged lawmakers not to confirm her over her treatment of military recruiters while she was the dean at Harvard years earlier, and he argued that her attempt to stop military recruiters from coming to the university had “unapologetically obstructed the military in a time of war.”
Hegseth deployed again in 2011, this time to Afghanistan, and he spent nearly a year there. He received another Bronze Star Medal, among a handful of other awards, during the roughly 10 months he spent in Afghanistan.
Shortly after returning home, Hegseth entered the Republican primary for the Minnesota senate race but withdrew before the primary. Republican Kurt Bills ended up losing the election to incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who is still in Congress.
He joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 and has been with the network since Trump tapped him as his nominee for the next secretary of defense. During his first term, Trump was a frequent viewer of Fox’s programs, while Hegseth was a big supporter on-air.
Hegseth went as far as to try to persuade the former president of military decisions, including pushing him to pardon some United States servicemen accused of war crimes. Trump ultimately did pardon the relevant service members.
Trump reportedly considered tapping Hegseth to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs during his first term but never made that decision.
Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017, though he was never charged. The Monterey Police Department investigated “an alleged sexual assault” involving Hegseth that took place in the early hours of October 8, 2017, at the address of a Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. Hegseth has described the encounter as consensual but also came to a settlement agreement in 2020 when his team heard the alleged victim was considering a lawsuit. He maintains the sexual encounter was consensual.
Hegseth has been married three times. He and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, were married from 2004-2009, and he was married to his second wife, Samantha Deering, with whom he has three children, from 2010-2017. He cheated on Deering with Fox Executive Producer Jennifer Rauchet, and they had a daughter together. Hegseth and Rauchet have been married since 2019.
During the Biden administration, Hegseth has been a frequent critic of the president and the Pentagon, which put an added emphasis on diversity and inclusion efforts. Hegseth disagrees vehemently with the department’s emphasis on diversity efforts, and he will almost certainly restrict them if he gets confirmed by the Senate.
“The dumbest phrase on planet Earth in the military is our diversity is our strength,” Hegseth told Shawn Ryan in his podcast interview days before Trump picked him as his choice to lead the Pentagon.
He has drawn significant attention for two religious tattoos — the Jerusalem Cross and the “Deus Vult” motto, the latter of which prompted the National Guard to pull him from duty ahead of President Joe Biden‘s inauguration in early 2021, according to emails obtained by the Associated Press. Hegseth had said he believed the former tattoo, emblazoned on his chest, was the reason he was removed.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Unlike many of his predecessors, Hegseth does not have experience leading a large bureaucracy, and the DoD is one of the largest bureaucracies in the country. There are more than a million service members and approximately 3 million DoD employees. The department has a budget of about $850 billion, which is likely to continue increasing in the coming years.
Republicans in Congress have expressed an openness to Hegseth’s nomination despite his limited bureaucratic experience, while Democrats have shared concerns. He has met with several Republican senators since Trump nominated him. The GOP will have a narrow majority in the Senate once the next Congress begins.