Pete Hegseth, whom President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to serve as defense secretary, is a Fox News host who served in the National Guard and who has been a vocal critic of women in combat roles, diversity and inclusion efforts in the military, and other policies that he’s decried as “woke s—t.”
Currently a Fox News host, Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021 ultimately becoming a major, according to the Army. He deployed to Iraq from September 2005 to July 2006; Afghanistan from May 2011 to January 2012; and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from June 2004 to April 2005. His military awards include two Bronze Stars, two Army Commendation Medals, the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, and the expert infantryman and combat infantryman badges.
Hegseth is the latest veteran of the Global War on Terrorism whom Trump has picked to be part of his team. If confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth will join Marine veteran J.D. Vance, who will be sworn in as vice president in January, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a retired National Guard colonel and Green Beret whom Trump has picked to serve as his national security advisor.
Trump’s decision to tap Hegseth for the role has already sparked some criticism in light of the TV news host’s lack of executive experience, with CNN reporting that one of Hegseth’s “flabbergasted” colleagues wondered how he would be able to manage an organization as large as the Defense Department.
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Hegseth has authored several books, most recently “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
“The book reveals the leftwing betrayal of our Warriors, and how we must return our Military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability, and excellence,” Trump wrote on Tuesday when he announced Hegseth’s nomination. “Pete has also led two Veterans Advocacy organizations, leading the fight for our Warriors, and our great Veterans. Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy.”
During Trump’s first term, Hegseth was considered to become secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs before Trump ultimately selected Robert Wilike for the position.
Hegseth also played a key role in persuading Trump to intervene in the high-profile military cases of Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher.
During a Nov. 7 appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, Hegseth said he was proud to have worked behind the scenes on those cases, which demonstrates that Trump cares about troops that are sent into harm’s way and won’t second judge them for doing what is needed to win.
“He called and he’d be like, ‘They did some nasty — they did some tough things, these are rough guys,” Hegseth recalled. “He respects people that were willing to do it on behalf of the rest of us, and he’s not going to throw them under the bus.”
Hegseth’s interview on the Shawn Ryan Show covered a wide range of topics, including Hegseth’s belief that the military has lost sight of its mission since President Barack Obama’s administration.
He accused politicians of upending the military’s history of meritocracy to promote social experiments, such as allowing transgender people to serve and allowing women to serve in combat jobs.
“Obama spent a disproportionate amount of time focusing on the Pentagon,” Hegseth said. “They were skeptical of leadership and eventually brought in political appointees and generals who would do their bidding the way they wanted.”
As it so happens, critics of Trump are accusing him of planning to do something similar with the Pentagon in his second term. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump’s transition team is considering a draft executive order that would direct retired senior military leaders to review current three- and four-star general and flag officers to determine whether any should be dismissed.
Speaking on the Shawn Ryan Show, Hegseth said the best way to reestablish trust between service members and their leadership would be for the next administration to replace current senior leaders with “no-nonsense warfighters in those positions who aren’t going to cater to those socially correct garbage.”
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said. “Any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion], woke s—t has got to go. Either you’re in for warfighting and that’s it, that’s the only litmus test we care about. You got to get DEI and CRT [Critical Race Theory] out of military academies so you’re not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking. Whatever the combat standards were, say, I don’t know, in 1995, let’s just make those the standards. And as far as recruiting, to hire the guy that did ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and create some real ads that motivate people to want to serve.”
Hegseth also doubled down on his position that women should not serve in combat roles, arguing that the military’s post-World War II racial integration succeeded because men with different backgrounds can do the same jobs, but integrating men and women into combat jobs would require the military to lower its standards.
Hegseth argued that the military has lowered standards to assign women the same combat roles as men, and that has changed the capability of combat units, “Because everybody knows between bone density, lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are just different.”
Hegseth said that women should not serve in jobs that require a “strength as a differentiator,” including SEALS, Rangers, Green Berets, Marine Raiders, and infantry, armor, and artillery career fields.
“I’m just straight up just saying: We should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”
UPDATE: 11/13/2024; this story was updated with more information about Pete Hegseth’s career in the Army National Guard.