Pete Hegseth

Peter Brian Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) is an American former television presenter, author, and former Army National Guard officer who has served as the 29th United States secretary of defense since January 2025.
Hegseth studied politics at Princeton University, where he published for The Princeton Tory, a conservative student newspaper. In 2003, he was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, for whom he served at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Hegseth worked for several organizations after leaving Iraq, including as an executive director at Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. He became a contributor for Fox News in 2014. Hegseth served as an advisor to President Donald Trump after initially supporting his campaign in 2016. From 2017 to 2024, he was a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend. He has written several books, including American Crusade (2020) and The War on Warriors (2024).
In November 2024, President-elect Trump named Hegseth as his nominee for secretary of defense. A Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing for Hegseth was held days before Trump's second inauguration. He faced allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and alcohol issues leading up to his committee confirmation. Hegseth was confirmed by the Senate that month, with Vice President JD Vance casting a tie-breaking vote, the second time in U.S. history that a Cabinet nominee's confirmation was decided by a vice president after Betsy DeVos in 2017. He is the second-youngest person to serve as secretary of defense, after Donald Rumsfeld, and the first Minnesotan to serve in the position.
Peter Brian Hegseth was born on June 6, 1980, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the first child of Brian and Penelope "Penny" Hegseth. Brian was a basketball coach for high schools across Minnesota before retiring in 2019, while Penny is an executive business coach who has taught with the Minnesota Excellence in Public Service Series, a program for Republican women. Hegseth was raised in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and attended Forest Lake Area High School. He graduated in 1999 as valedictorian and was later inducted into the hall of fame. He played for the school's football team and was a point guard, earning school records in career and single-season three-point shots and single-season three-point shooting percentage. Hegseth was twice named all-conference and earned all-state honors as a senior.
In 1999, Hegseth enrolled at Princeton University, where he majored in politics. According to Reserve & National Guard Magazine, he chose Princeton over an offer from the United States Military Academy for Princeton's men's basketball program, the Tigers. Months before the September 11 attacks, Hegseth joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He played for the Tigers, and was the publisher and later editor-in-chief of The Princeton Tory, a conservative newspaper. In April 2002, he declared that as publisher, he would "defend the pillars of Western civilization against the distractions of diversity". The editors of The Princeton Tory criticized Halle Berry for accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Monster's Ball (2001) "on behalf of an entire race", and The New York Times for announcing that it would print gay marriage announcements, arguing that it would justify publishing marriage announcements for incestuous, zoophilic, and pedophilic relationships. In October, the Tory published an editorial characterizing homosexuality as immoral. In response, the president of Princeton's student government, Nina Langsam, wrote a strongly worded email to The Princeton Tory's publisher, Brad Simmons, and Hegseth. Her email was published in the following issue.
After graduating from Princeton in June 2003, Hegseth commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army through the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. He briefly worked as an equity-markets analyst at Bear Stearns. Hegseth completed his basic training at Fort Benning, later renamed to Fort Moore, in Columbus, Georgia, in 2004, and for eleven months, he was a Minnesota Army National Guardsman at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. There, he led a platoon of soldiers from the New Jersey Army National Guard guarding detainees. By July 2005, he had returned to Bear Stearns; shortly thereafter, he volunteered in the Iraq War as an infantry officer, where he received a Bronze Star Medal. Hegseth served in the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division, led by colonel Michael D. Steele. He began his tour in Baghdad before moving to Samarra, where he served as a civil affairs officer, working with the city council and forming an alliance with councilmember Asaad Ali Yaseen. Hegseth has described a near-death experience in Iraq in which a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle, but failed to detonate.
In 2011, Hegseth enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard as a captain. He volunteered to teach at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, for eight months, during the withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan; he taught one of the final classes at the school. After completing his tour in 2014, he was promoted to major and enlisted in the Individual Ready Reserve. Through the reserve, he joined the District of Columbia Army National Guard in June 2019 as a traditional drilling service member, remaining in duty until March 2021. He was barred from serving on duty at the inauguration of Joe Biden after a guardsman flagged Hegseth as an "insider threat", noting a tattoo on his bicep of the words Deus vult. He left the Individual Ready Reserve in January 2024, stating that he resigned over the incident in his book The War on Warriors (2024).
By August 2006, Hegseth moved to Manhattan and began working at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, where he met a marine who was working for Vets for Freedom, a political advocacy organization. He began working for Vets for Freedom in 2006 as an unpaid director; by 2007, he was working full-time as an executive director, and by the following year, he became the organization's president. In May 2007, Hegseth appeared at a presidential campaign fundraiser for Arizona senator John McCain. In the months leading up to the 2008 United States presidential election, Vets for Freedom began supporting McCain. As the group's chairman, he criticized Illinois senator Barack Obama for supporting "a dangerous policy of irreversible withdrawal." By January 2009, Vets for Freedom had accrued hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, leading to an internal campaign to oust Hegseth. The group merged with Military Families United, and he was removed from leadership by 2011.
After returning to Minnesota in February 2012, Hegseth had decided to enter the Republican primary for the United States Senate election in Minnesota and had selected a campaign manager, Anne Neu Brindley. By April, his campaign had raised US$160,000. Hegseth was defeated by Kurt Bills in the Republican convention in May, and he withdrew his nomination days later. He founded MN PAC to support similar candidates, though a third of the organization's funds were given to his friends and family. Hegseth began working for Concerned Veterans of America, a group funded by the Koch brothers, that year. The group criticized Obama for the 2014 Veterans Health Administration controversy. Hegseth enrolled in the Harvard Kennedy School in 2009, but only completed one semester; he graduated four years later with a degree in public policy. In 2022, to protest the offering of classes in critical race theory at Harvard University, he wrote "Return to sender" on his degree and reportedly sent it back to the university.
Hegseth left Concerned Veterans for America in January 2016 after issues regarding his mismanagement and alcoholism. In December, President-elect Donald Trump considered Hegseth for secretary of veterans affairs, but he faced opposition from veterans groups who viewed Hegseth's support for allowing all veterans to choose private doctors as untenable; Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that selecting Hegseth would "be war" and "a radical departure" for the department. Trump later chose David Shulkin, with The Washington Post noting Hegseth's lack of experience in operating a large organization. Hegseth told podcaster Shawn Ryan that Trump found him too young to assume the position. After Shulkin fell out of favor with the Trump administration in March 2018, Hegseth positioned himself as a potential candidate, though Trump later selected Robert Wilkie after consulting Hegseth and financier Isaac Perlmutter.
By June 2014, Hegseth had become a regular contributor to Fox News by the network's executive, Roger Ailes. In 2016, he was briefly a host on TheBlaze before regularly hosting Fox & Friends Weekend that year after Ailes's resignation, becoming an official co-host in January 2017. According to a Fox News executive in Hoax (2020), Jennifer Rauchet, a producer of Fox & Friends Weekend who would later marry him, "was favoring Pete with airtime" and "kept putting Pete on TV." Hegseth served as a temporary host for Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle (2017–present) in an effort by the network to promote other staffers; the change occurred during the boycott of The Ingraham Angle following comments Ingraham had made about David Hogg, an activist and survivor of the Parkland high school shooting. He hosted All-American New Year (2018) with commentator Lisa Kennedy.
Hegseth's opinions expressed on Fox & Friends influenced Trump's policymaking in his first term. In October 2018, as a migrant caravan began traveling to the United States, Trump claimed that "unknown Middle Easterners" had infiltrated the caravan. Trump apparently cited a comment that Hegseth had made on Fox & Friends, though Hegseth noted that he had not verified his statement for accuracy. Hegseth himself apparently had based his claim on a statement Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales had made on capturing one hundred ISIS fighters in the country. In negotiations to avert a federal government shutdown, Democrats neared a deal until Hegseth urged Trump not to support a deal that did not include US$5 billion for his border wall. Trump repeated claims that Hegseth had made correlating video games with mass shootings after two mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton in August 2019. Hegseth claimed that he had spoken to Trump on pardoning war criminals Clint Lorance and Mathew L. Golsteyn, as well as reversing the demotion of Eddie Gallagher.
At Fox News, Hegseth was the subject of multiple lawsuits. In June 2015, he threw an axe during a Flag Day event in New York City, accidentally hitting a drummer from the United States Military Academy. Video of the incident was widely circulated online. The drummer, Jeff Prosperie, alleged that he had suffered "severe and serious personal injuries to his mind and body" and "permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement and loss of body function." Prosperie filed a lawsuit against Hegseth three years later; the suit was resolved in an unspecified way in 2019. In Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network (2023), Dominion Voting Systems included a segment of Fox & Friends Weekend featuring Hegseth with co-hosts Will Cain and Rachel Campos-Duffy, in which they did not reject claims by Rudy Giuliani of election fraud being facilitated by the company's voting machines.
Hegseth was chosen among Fox News's hosts to be featured on Fox Nation, the network's streaming service. To promote the service, he co-hosted a one-hour special, Fox Nation First Look, with Jesse Watters, Tomi Lahren, Britt McHenry, and Tyrus. On Fox Nation, Hegseth hosted The Miseducation of America (2022–2023), a television program criticizing "the Left's educational agenda". He also hosted the series Battle in the Holy Land (2019–2023) and The Life of Jesus (2022–2023), and the special Battle in Bethlehem (2019), on the service.
On November 12, 2024, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump named Hegseth as his nominee for secretary of defense, after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton announced he would not serve as secretary. He subsequently ended his contract with Fox News. The selection of Hegseth was seen as a sign that Trump sought to appoint a loyalist to lead the Department of Defense, and his relative lack of experience surprised officials within the department. According to Vanity Fair, Trump's transition team became aware the following day of a sexual assault allegation involving Hegseth that occurred in Monterey, California, seven years prior; The Washington Post reported that senior officials on the team were surprised by the allegation and reconsidered his nomination. Despite the allegation, Trump defended Hegseth and several Republican senators indicated that they would support him. His nomination was threatened by an article from Jane Mayer in The New Yorker detailing alleged financial mismanagement and alcohol issues while leading his veterans' groups, while an NBC News article reported that his drinking habits concerned his colleagues at Fox News; The New York Times reported in December that Trump had begun to consider Florida governor Ron DeSantis as an alternative.
In an effort to retain his nomination amid controversies, Hegseth began a campaign that month. Advisors to Trump privately sought to persuade him to support Hegseth in fear that it would embolden recalcitrant Republican senators, while he could not garner support for DeSantis, according to The New York Times. In addition, the Times reported that Vice President-elect JD Vance had led a group of Republicans, including Donald Trump Jr., former Trump aide Steve Bannon, political activist Charlie Kirk, and Breitbart News reporter Matt Boyle. Trump allies took a direct approach to addressing the controversies, including an interview with Megyn Kelly that impressed Trump. Hegseth appeared at the United States Capitol; Trump publicly reaffirmed his support for Hegseth afterwards. The visit gave Iowa senator Joni Ernst, who had threatened his nomination, a positive impression of Hegseth.
Hegseth appeared before the Senate Committee on Armed Services on January 14. He positioned himself as a "warrior" while denying the allegations and his previous claims that women should not serve in combat roles. Hegseth was criticized by Democrats over his allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and alcohol issues. Rhode Island senator Jack Reed, the committee's ranking member, noted that Hegseth had used the term "jagoff" in his book The War on Warriors (2024) to derogatorily refer to a Judge Advocate General officer who reprimanded him on the use of rocket-propelled grenades. He did not answer a question from Virginia senator Tim Kaine on whether or not sexual assault, drinking, or infidelity were disqualifying. The Committee on Armed Services voted to advance his nomination 14–13 along party lines on January 20, after Trump was inaugurated. Hegseth's former sister-in-law, Danielle, sent an affidavit to senators alleging that he was abusive to his second wife, Samantha, and that he had an alcohol issue. Hegseth denied having a drinking problem and pledged not to drink if confirmed.
On January 24, Hegseth was confirmed by the Senate in a 51–50 vote. Every Republican senator, with the exception of Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell, voted to confirm him, while every Democrat senator opposed his nomination, leading to a 50–50 vote. Vance cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm Hegseth. His confirmation was threatened by Senator Thom Tillis, who told Senate majority leader John Thune the day before that he would not vote for Hegseth on the basis of his sexual assault allegations. Persuaded by Vance, Tillis expressed support for Hegseth on X minutes before the vote. His confirmation was the second in U.S. history to be decided by a vice president, after Betsy DeVos's confirmation for secretary of education in 2017.
Hegseth was sworn is as secretary of defense on January 25 by Vice President JD Vance. Hegseth identified several priorities for the Department of Defense, including to "revive the warrior ethos", restore trust in the military, redevelop the nation's industrial base, ease the department's process to purchase weaponry, defend the U.S. domestically, engage with Indo-Pacific to deter China, and support Trump's effort to "end wars responsibly"—including the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Middle Eastern crisis.
In a call to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day after being sworn in, Hegseth said that the United States was "fully committed" to the security of Israel. Hegseth revoked the security clearance and detail of Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief of staff of the Army who later became a critic of Trump, and ordered an inspector general inquiry into Milley's tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the inspector general of the Department of Defense, Robert Storch, was removed from his position when Trump dismissed several inspectors general. According to The Washington Post, the Department of Defense Education Activity began removing certain books on immigration and sexuality.
Hegseth visited the Mexico–United States border with Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, in El Paso, Texas, in February, where he stated that the federal government intended to gain complete "operational control of the southern border". He renamed Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, its original name honoring the Confederate general Braxton Bragg. The military base was now renamed for Roland L. Bragg, a soldier who served in World War II. In a meeting before the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters, he opposed NATO membership for Ukraine and said that returning Ukraine's borders prior to the annexation of Crimea by Russia was "unrealistic". The Department of Defense invited Jack Posobiec, an alt-right political activist to accompany Hegseth, according to The Washington Post. Hegseth moderated his comments the following day, stating that it would be possible for Ukraine to join NATO given Trump's discretion.
In February 2025, Hegseth ordered officials within the Department of Defense to reduce funding on most initiatives and began a purge from within the department, firing three top judge advocate generals and Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations. Hegseth stated that "we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice" rather than "roadblocks to anything". In March, he ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, in an apparent effort to encourage Russian president Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the Russo-Ukrainian War. Also that month, the Defense Department cancelled 91 of its research studies, including those on climate change impacts and social trends, while Hegseth later stated that the Defense Department "does not do climate change crap." Separately, the Trump administration instructed Hegseth to "immediately" present "credible military options to ensure fair and unfettered US military and commercial access to the Panama Canal".
In March 2025, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported that he had been accidentally included by Michael Waltz in a Signal group chat where Hegseth shared information about attacks in Yemen hours before they occurred. The discussions involved U.S. officials, including Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio. According to The New York Times, several officials with the Department of Defense expressed shock at the incident, while various former national security officials noted the potential for espionage amid ongoing efforts by China to obtain telecommunications records. A spokesperson for the National Security Council confirmed Goldberg's report and the authenticity of the messages. Hegseth rejected 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 the group chat.
Goldberg later published most of the Signal chat. The chat showed that Hegseth posted information including the launch times of F-18 aircraft, MQ-9 drones and Tomahawk missiles, as well as the time when the F-18 aircraft would reach their targets, and the time when the bombs would land. Hegseth commented on the chat, writing that there were: "No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information". The incident led to criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. After the Signal leak, media outlet Der Spiegel searched the Internet using a commercial information provider and password leaks, which revealed Hegseth's personal mobile number, personal email address and its password, and WhatsApp account.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Hegseth had brought his wife to two meetings with foreign defense officials in which sensitive information was discussed, one meeting in February, at Brussels, with NATO officials, and the other in March, at the Pentagon, with British Defense Secretary John Healey. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported in March that Hegseth's brother, Phil, was listed by the Trump administration as a senior adviser to Hegseth, accompanying Hegseth to meetings, including in Congress, and on official foreign trips. Phil, who previously worked in podcasting and media relations, was confirmed by Hegseth's office to be working in the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison to the Department of Defense. That month, The Washington Post detailed a memorandum written by Hegseth orienting the department towards deterring a potential invasion of Taiwan and supporting homeland defense by "assuming risk" in Europe. The document contained passages that were identical to those present in Project 2025.
In April, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General announced an inquiry into Hegseth's disclosure of classified information in the Signal chat.
Hegseth holds strongly conservative views and is regarded as a Christian nationalist. In his book American Crusade (2020), Hegseth characterized "Americanism" as being opposition to movements such as feminism, globalism, Marxism, and progressivism, equated democracy to a leftist demand, and expressed support for election-rigging through gerrymandering to "screw Democrats". He described progressives and Democrats as enemies of freedom, as well as the United States and the Constitution. Hegseth has said that victory for America includes the end of globalism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, Islamism, genderism, and leftism. He has repeated claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election and spread conspiracy theories about Antifa involvement in the January 6 attack.
Hegseth initially supported Florida senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, but later began to favor Texas senator Ted Cruz and finally Donald Trump. He defended Trump's policies in his first term, including his interactions with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. While on Fox News in 2016, Hegseth was highly critical of Hillary Clinton due to her email controversy, where he indicated that "recklessness in handling information" would normally lead to job firings and criminal prosecution, while risking foreign governments gaining access to the information and damage to relationships with allied countries.
In an interview with the National Review in March 2012, Hegseth advocated for premium support in Medicare and removing fee-for-service. He opposed a contraception mandate and described the Keystone Pipeline as a dichotomy between "jobs and an environmental-impact study", and that he was "always going to side with jobs." On Fox & Friends in 2019, Hegseth described climate change as an attempt at government control. In March 2025, he canceled climate change studies and decried the phenomenon as "crap" on social media. That month, he sought to eliminate climate planning from the Department of Defense but included an exception for extreme weather preparation.
In November 2009, Hegseth supported sending additional forces into Afghanistan during the War in Afghanistan. He advocated for withdrawing from Afghanistan in his interview with the National Review, but argued that special operators should remain in the country and that the Afghan Army should be supported to avert a conflict.
Hegseth has criticized NATO and the United Nations. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he called Putin a war criminal; he later told Fox News host Harris Faulkner that the invasion was less significant than "wokeness" and crime. He has criticized United States military aid to Ukraine. In January 2020, he supported Donald Trump's threat for the destruction of Iranian cultural sites.
Hegseth has supported the premiership of Benjamin Netanyahu. After Netanyahu was expected to be criminally charged in March 2019 for alleged bribery and fraud, he posted a video of Hegseth describing him as a "great friend to the United States". He has argued that the Chinese government is "building a military to defeat the United States" and repeated claims by Trump that "tens of thousands of Chinese nationals" have been sent to the Mexico–United States border. In May 2020, Hegseth said the "communist Chinese" want to "end our civilization".
In a Yale Political Union speech in October 2008, Hegseth disagreed with "Don't ask, don't tell", the United States's position on homosexuality in the military, but noted that "Radical Islam is a far greater threat." In a podcast interview with Shawn Ryan in November 2024, Hegseth stated that women should not serve in combat roles.
Hegseth opposed Operation Iron Triangle, a raid in August 2006 that resulted in the death of three Iraqi men, as "atrocities" to an audience at the University of Virginia. He has criticized the U.S. military for accusing soldiers of committing war crimes.
Hegseth published his memoir, In the Arena, in 2016. In May 2020, he released American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free. In October, Fox News Media reached a three-book agreement with HarperCollins to publish books by Fox News hosts, beginning with Hegseth's Modern Warriors: Real Stories from Real Heroes in November. He co-authored Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation with David Goodwin, the president of the Association of Classical Christian Schools, in 2022. In June 2024, Hegseth published The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. American Crusade, Modern Warriors, Battle for the American Mind, and The War on Warriors have reached The New York Times Best Seller list. He wrote the foreword to The Case against the Establishment (2017), a book written by Nick Adams and Dave Erickson.
In 2004, Hegseth married Meredith Schwarz, a graduate of Forest Lake Area High School, at the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Minnesota; they were voted "most likely to marry" by their graduating class. Meredith filed for divorce in December 2008 after Hegseth admitted to five affairs; he had been dating Samantha Deering, whom he had met at Vets for Freedom. Deering married Hegseth in 2010, with whom he has three children; they filed for divorce in 2017. In 2019, Hegseth married Jennifer Rauchet, a producer on Fox & Friends, at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck in New Jersey, in an event attended by the Trump family.
In November 2024, Vanity Fair reported that Hegseth had allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course in Monterey, California, in October 2017, when he was scheduled to speak at the California Federation of Republican Women convention. According to the Monterey Police Department, Hegseth was investigated in connection with two incidents of sexual assault that occurred shortly before midnight and 7 a.m. the following morning. He was not criminally charged. The Washington Post reported that Hegseth had paid the accuser as part of a non-disclosure agreement after she threatened litigative action in 2020. In addition, the paper obtained a memorandum provided to Donald Trump's presidential transition team by an associate of the accuser, a 30-year-old conservative group staffer, that alleged that Hegseth was intoxicated and raped her. Hegseth's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, later confirmed the reports, but said that the staffer was attempting to extort Hegseth, a purported "victim of blackmail and innocent collateral damage", during the #MeToo movement, risking his career. The Associated Press reported in January 2025 that Hegseth had paid her US$50,000.
Records released by the Monterey Police Department later that month provided additional details on the incident. The accuser told police that she had confronted Hegseth, who informed her that he was a "nice guy", after he had acted "inappropriately" with women at the event. She recalled being in an undisclosed room with Hegseth, who allegedly took her phone and blocked the door, where he then allegedly raped her. The accuser said that "things got fuzzy" and told a nurse days later that she had believed she had been drugged. Hegseth told police that he had sought to ensure she was comfortable. Video surveillance footage showed Hegseth and the accuser walking, with her smiling. Two women who were interviewed by police stated that Hegseth had put his hand on their thighs and asked them to go to his hotel room, with one woman saying that she had asked the accuser to get him off of her. According to CNN, the accuser went to a hospital to report a sexual assault and obtained a rape kit test in the emergency room. The rape kit exam served as the impetus for the Monterey Police Department's investigation. Hegseth told police that he did have sex with the woman but that it was consensual. Monterey County district attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni declined to file charges in January 2018, saying that proof beyond a reasonable doubt was not established.
In November 2024 The New York Times obtained an email from Hegseth's mother, Penny, from April 2018, accusing her son of having mistreated women for years. After the Times's reporting, Penny told the paper that she had "immediately apologized in a separate email" and that her words were written "in anger, with emotion". She defended her son on Fox News, saying he was "redeemed, forgiven, changed." In January 2025, NBC News reported that Samantha's sister Danielle had sent an affidavit to senators alleging that he had made his wife concerned for her safety, with Samantha said to have once hid in a closet and to have formed an escape plan that was once used. Hegseth's lawyer Parlatore dismissed the allegations.
In In the Arena (2016), Hegseth described his Christian faith as initially "more out of diligent habit than deep conviction". Following the September 11 attacks, he developed a hatred for Islamic terrorism, denouncing the Princeton University Chapel for its "moral relativism". He told Nashville Christian Family that he experienced a religious transformation in 2018 after he and his wife, Jennifer, began attending the Colts Neck Community Church in New Jersey. Seeking to send their children to Jonathan Edwards Classical Academy, a Christian school, the Hegseths moved to Nashville, Tennessee, three years later. There, they joined the Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a church in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.
Hegseth has several tattoos, including one across his right bicep reading Deus vult, a Christian phrase associated with divine providence and God's will, as well as a tattoo of the Jerusalem cross on his right breast; the combination of Deus Vult and the cross has been associated with the Christian right. Hegseth also has a tattoo near the Deus vult tattoo reading kafir (transl. unbeliever) in Arabic, garnering criticism from some Muslims, who accused him of Islamophobia. In addition, he has a tattoo of the political cartoon Join, or Die, a cross and sword with Hebrew lettering reading Yeshua, and the words We the People on his right forearm, as well as the coat of arms of the 187th Infantry Regiment on his back, including its motto Ne Desit Virtus or "Let Valor Not Fail".
Hegseth's awards and decorations include:
In addition, Hegseth was awarded the Expert Infantryman Badge, though it cannot be worn with the Combat Infantryman Badge.