Pete Hegseth

Quick facts

Key positions

Biography

Pete Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) is a Princeton and Harvard Kennedy School graduate and an Army National Guard captain who deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq (2005–2006), and Afghanistan (2011–2012). For more than a decade he was a weekend co-host on Fox News (2014–2025) before President Trump nominated him to lead the Pentagon. The Senate confirmed him as Secretary of Defense in January 2025; the department was subsequently renamed and he now holds the title Secretary of War.

Hegseth is a documented member of Doug Wilson’s religious network. He attends Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Nashville, a congregation in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), the denomination Wilson co-founded in 1998, and attended the 2025 opening of Christ Church DC, Wilson’s church plant blocks from the U.S. Capitol. In March 2025, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that Hegseth “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.” At the 2025 National Conservatism Conference in Washington, Hegseth appeared alongside Wilson and border official Tom Homan. His confirmation followed reporting on a 2017 sexual-assault allegation, detailed in a California police report, which Hegseth has denied; the matter dominated his January 2025 confirmation hearing.

In January 2021, Hegseth was removed from the National Guard detail for President Biden’s inauguration after a fellow Guardsman flagged him as a potential “insider threat.” The concern, per the flagging Guardsman and contemporaneous reporting, centered on his “Deus Vult” (“God wills it”) tattoo — a First Crusade battle cry widely adopted in white-nationalist and alt-right imagery — not, as Hegseth has often framed it, on his Jerusalem cross tattoo. On September 30, 2025, he summoned roughly 800 generals, admirals, and senior enlisted leaders to Marine Corps Base Quantico for an address announcing a “warrior ethos” agenda, including a return to a “highest male standard only” for combat roles; all service members were later ordered to watch it.

As Defense/War Secretary, Hegseth authorized the use of Army bases for immigration detention. In spring 2025 he approved building a migrant detention facility on a 60-acre stretch of Fort Bliss (Camp East Montana), and in July 2025 he notified members of Congress of plans to detain immigrants at Camp Atterbury (Indiana) and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (New Jersey), saying the bases could house detainees “without affecting military readiness.” Three detainees died at the Fort Bliss facility over 44 days (December 2025–January 2026); one death was ruled a homicide by the El Paso County Medical Examiner, and a subsequent autopsy was routed to the DOD-run William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

Sources

• War Department, “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Addresses General and Flag Officers at Quantico, Virginia” (official transcript), September 30, 2025 — war.gov
• PBS News, “What to know about the archconservative church Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends,” March 15, 2025 — pbs.org
• ABC News, “Pete Hegseth flagged as potential military ‘insider threat’ because of ‘Deus Vult’ tattoo” — abcnews.go.com
• Politifact, “Did Pete Hegseth’s tattoos bar him from National Guard service in 2021?” November 19, 2024 — politifact.com
• Idaho Capital Sun, “Trump’s Defense secretary nominee has close ties to Idaho Christian nationalists,” November 21, 2024 — idahocapitalsun.com
• Stars and Stripes, “Hegseth approves migrant facility at Fort Bliss,” April 11, 2025 — stripes.com