Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, has said that he believes women should not serve in combat and that he wants to see the military purged of “woke” officials who support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Hegseth, 44, a Fox News host, has an extensive history of eyebrow-raising commentary, especially when it comes to military matters he’d oversee should he be confirmed to join Trump’s second Cabinet and become sixth in line to the presidency.
Hegseth has long maintained a close relationship with Trump. The pair have frequently appeared together in photographs on social media and on Fox’s airwaves. Hegseth started at Fox News in 2014 as an on-air pundit, working his way up to co-hosting the weekend edition of “Fox & Friends,” the network’s flagship morning show.
Trump described Hegseth on Tuesday evening as “tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” he said.
Neither Fox News nor Trump’s transition team immediately responded to requests for comment about Hegseth’s on-air remarks about the military. Hegseth was an Army National Guard infantry officer, serving tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Hegseth has already given clues about how he’d like to remake the Defense Department, the largest and oldest U.S. government agency, with a budget of about $850 billion. Appearing last week on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast, Hegseth said that in Trump’s second term, “any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI, woke s–t has got to go.”
The first order of business, he said, would be to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who he said has pushed a “woke” agenda.
He also declared that female soldiers should not be allowed to fight on the front lines.
“I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the podcast. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”
The Pentagon first announced it would open all combat roles to women in 2015, a historic policy shift meant to reflect the changing attitudes of gender-based barriers within the military. Women are more than 17% of the military’s active duty force, according to the Defense Department, and they have proven themselves in training, excelled as fighter pilots in overseas combat and broken ground in top roles throughout the armed forces.
Pentagon officials do not expect the next administration will change the policy and restrict women from serving in combat, but they are concerned that this could have a negative effect on women wanting to serve or those who are currently in uniform.
“At a time when recruiting continues to be a challenge this will have a chilling effect on women wanting to join,” one defense official said, in part because they will see that “the most senior civilian in the Pentagon does not value their service.”
Hegseth has also suggested the rules of war ought to be reworked to benefit the U.S. In early 2020, after Iran fired missiles at U.S. forces housed at Iraqi air bases in retaliation for the Trump-authorized strike killing top Iranian Gen. Qassam Soleimani, he said on the air that the U.S. military should be allowed to bomb Iranian historic sites.
“I don’t care about Iranian cultural sites,” he said in one appearance. Two days later, he said, “If we’re going to fight to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, this regime, then we need to rewrite the rules that are advantageous to us,” adding, “I don’t want to hit cultural sites on purpose, but if you’re using one to harbor your most dangerous weapons, then that should be on the target list, too.”
More to the point, Hegseth said last week on Ryan’s podcast, “the rules of war are for winners.”
Hegseth has also been vocal about defending members of the military in controversial cases.
He publicly lobbied Trump in 2019 to pardon three U.S. servicemen who were either convicted or accused of war crimes. Among them was Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL platoon leader who was acquitted by a military jury in the killing of a militant in Iraq in 2017 but was convicted on a related minor charge.
“They’re not war criminals; they’re warriors,” Hegseth said on the air that year about the men he hoped Trump would pardon.
Trump reversed the sentence against Gallagher that demoted his military rank, prompting the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, who opposed the decision. Trump also pardoned two others in separate cases involving the killings of Afghans during war.
More recently, Hegseth defended Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who is on trial in the chokehold death of a homeless Black man in a New York City subway last year, posting to X that Penny is “an American hero” and that “the woke mob is trying to ruin” him.
Early in his career at Fox, Hegseth went viral in 2015 for an on-air incident in which he overshot a target and struck a West Point drummer in the arm with an ax. The man, Master Sgt. Jeffrey Prosperie, sued Hegseth. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the case was discontinued in 2019 and that Prosperie’s lawyer wrote in a statement, “The parties have resolved the matter and will make no further comment.” Prosperie could not be reached for comment.
Hegseth is among a flurry of Cabinet-level picks by Trump, including longtime allies like Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to be attorney general, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be secretary of state and former House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence.
At least one of Hegseth’s cable news colleagues met his selection with some skepticism.
“From silly diner interviews on Weekend Fox and Friends to Secretary of Defense? I never thought I’d say I’m stunned about any pick after the election but nominating Pete Hegseth for this incredibly important role? Yes he’s a veteran … and?” former “Fox & Friends” host Gretchen Carlson said Tuesday evening on X.
Hegseth’s Fox News colleagues, meanwhile, heaped praise upon him.
“You don’t realize how qualified he is until you really look at the résumé,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said Wednesday morning.
Hegseth, a decorated veteran, could face a challenging confirmation process. Republicans will hold a slim majority in the Senate, and his comments and status as a relative unknown may prove to be obstacles.
“Who?” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said on Capitol Hill when he was asked Tuesday evening about Trump’s picking Hegseth. “I don’t know Pete. I just don’t know anything about him.”
Nevertheless, even skeptical Republican senators seem open to confirming him.
“I’m not going to be negative right now, because I want to learn more about his background and, you know, and his approach to this stuff, so he’ll go through the regular process,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday.
