5 Things to Know About Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Choice for Secretary of Defense

Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on Nov. 29, 2016. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Army combat veteran and longtime Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be the next secretary of defense.

“I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as The Secretary of Defense,” Trump said in a Nov. 12 statement. “Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice.”

If Hegseth is confirmed by the Senate as the next defense secretary, he will serve as the military’s top civilian leader under the president and will oversee the day-to-day efforts of the military.

His nomination occurs at a time when the U.S. military is transitioning from the counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that have come to define the Global War on Terror era to a renewed focus on conflicts with peer and near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China, whose actions in certain regions have complicated U.S. counterterrorism and security interests.

Hegseth would have to come up to speed on multiple fronts, at a time when the U.S. military is coordinating with allies and partners to bolster Ukraine in an active war with Russia, as the U.S. military is dealing with a series of overlapping conflicts throughout the Middle East, and as China is rapidly expanding its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

A Combat Veteran

Hegseth, 44, is a combat veteran. While studying at Princeton, Hegseth was commissioned as an officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard. He joined the service in October 2002 and served as an infantry officer.

According to a copy of his service record shared with The Epoch Times, Hegseth’s unit did a rotation through Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, from June 2004 to April 2005. The base has served as a detention facility for foreign terror suspects throughout the Global War on Terror era.

After that Guantanamo Bay deployment, Hegseth’s unit deployed to Iraq from September 2005 to July 2006. His unit deployed to Afghanistan from May 2011 to January 2012.

In the course of his military service, Hegseth twice earned the Bronze Star. His other awards and decorations include the Joint Service Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, three Army Reserve Components Achievement Medals, the National Defense Service Medal with a Bronze Service Star, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, an Iraq Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device, the Army Service Ribbon, two Overseas Service Ribbons, the D.C. National Guard Emergency Service Ribbon, a NATO Medal, a Joint Meritorious Unit Award, a Combat Infantryman Badge, and an Expert Infantryman Badge.

Hegseth retired from military service in March 2021 as a major.

Author and Political Commentator

Beyond his military service, Hegseth has been engaged in veteran advocacy efforts and has been the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America.

Hegseth has authored several books focusing on military and political issues. He also has been a mainstay on Fox News, providing political commentary across the network’s various daytime and primetime programs.

His most recent book, published earlier this year, is “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” The book focuses on concerns that U.S. military leadership has become overly focused on political issues at the expense of its overall warfighting capability.

Concerned About a ‘Woke’ Military

Hegseth elaborated on his view that the military has embraced “wokeness” during an interview with the “Shawn Ryan Show” on Nov. 7. During the interview with Ryan, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, Hegseth expressed opposition to the presence of women in combat roles within the U.S. military.

“Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means casualties are worse,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth voiced support for firing military leaders deemed to be too focused on advancing political causes, up to and including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Any general that was involved—general, admiral, whatever—that was involved in any of the DEI woke [expletive] has got to go,” he said, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Questions US Military Preparedness

During his “Shawn Ryan Show” appearance, Hegseth warned that the U.S. military’s warfighting capabilities are lagging dangerously behind those of China.

Hegseth noted that U.S. planners routinely find that the United States would lose or sustain crippling losses in hypothetical conflicts with China.

Hegseth said the U.S. military’s method for modernizing its arsenal is partly to blame for the declining probability of success in such a conflict.

“The way our bureaucratic system works, the speed of weapons procurement works, we’re always a decade behind in fighting the last war,” he said.

At another point in the interview, Hegseth said that the U.S. military’s current support for the Ukrainian war effort is starting to undermine its own readiness. He said he has spoken with U.S. artillery troops who said their training time has been cut because so much of the U.S. supply of artillery shells is being donated to Ukrainian forces.

A ‘Recovering Neocon’

Speaking with Ryan, Hegseth said he was “a huge proponent” of the Iraq War when it began, but said that in retrospect he doesn’t think the United States should have been involved in that conflict.

Hegseth said he has been a “recovering neocon” for the past six years, and he lamented “the foolishness with which [the United States] ricocheted around the world intervening” and “created something worse in almost every single scenario.”

Referring to the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Hegseth said, “The last thing I want is my son deploying to the Donbas, to defend eastern Ukraine.”

Trump has said he would prefer to quickly bring an end to the current Russia–Ukraine conflict through negotiations.