The former soldier was appointed by Donald Trump to head the Pentagon, the titanic administration of the American army. Controversial and too underqualified, the 44-year-old man has a string of controversies, notably because of his ultra-conservative positions.
On his chest, a Jerusalem cross, an emblem of the Crusades. On his bicep, the inscription God wants “God wills it” in Latin, a rallying cry from the First Crusade in the 11th century that has been taken up in recent years by the white supremacist movement. On his arm is an American flag adorned with an assault rifle. The tattoos alone of Pete Hegseth, chosen by Donald Trump to be Secretary of Defense, say a lot about the character. “Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”declared the president-elect on Tuesday, November 12, during his announcement. “With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice: Our military will be great again and America will never back down,” he continued.
But shortly after this shock appointment, several American media revealed that this 44-year-old former soldier had been accused of sexual assault in 2017. Police in Monterey, California, confirmed Thursday that they had investigated in October 2017 “alleged sexual assault” at a hotel involving Pete Hegseth. Bruises were visible on the alleged victim's right thigh, police said. If no complaint was filed against him, the man would have paid an unknown amount of money to his accuser several years later as part of a confidentiality agreement, says the Washington Post. Pete Hegseth assures that their relationship was consensual. The revelation of this affair also betrays a virtual absence of «vetting», this scrupulous and intrusive process of filtering candidates for the highest offices which is usually required in the United States. However, his appointment remains to be confirmed.
Insufficiently qualified
Already expected to work in the first Trump administration in 2016, Pete Hegseth's career had been scrutinized by Justin Higgins, a former Republican executive responsible for carrying out this meticulous investigative work. At the time, Higgins had judged Hegseth “insufficiently qualified” for the junior positions of Secretary of State for Defense or Veterans Affairs.
And these eight years will not have brought the skills necessary to lead a titanic administration – 3.4 million soldiers and civilian employees for an annual budget of more than 850 billion dollars – to the man who is now a morning host on the conservative channel Fox News, tackles Justin Higgins in an article published Saturday by MSNBC. “Hegseth compensates for the experience he lacks with dangerous partisan speech”he explains, seeing this as the reason for the choice of the new president. “He's an empty shell who plays tough on television. It's not hard to imagine that he will do and say whatever Trump wants.he asserted.
A graduate of the prestigious Princeton and Harvard universities, the former infantry officer served eighteen years in the National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he earned two prestigious military medals. Married three times, Pete Hegseth denounces a “wokist” drift in the armed forces and opposes the presence of female soldiers in combat. He boasts of having obtained from Donald Trump a presidential pardon for two soldiers convicted of murder and the reinstatement of a third, convicted of posing with a corpse in Iraq.
Crusade and ax throwing
Another subject of controversy, he himself revealed that he was one of the dozen soldiers excluded from the security system for the inauguration of Democratic President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021, in an interview on the podcast of the former member of the forces Shawn Ryan specials, airing two days after the November 5 presidential election. “I was accused of extremism because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington”he declared, showing the Jerusalem cross on his chest, assuring that“it is simply a Christian symbol”.
According to several media, another tattoo aroused the suspicions of his superiors: the inscription God wills. This slogan, used as a rallying cry during the first crusade in 1096, is also the last sentence of his book published in 2020, entitled American Crusade. Both words have been adopted by some on the far right, white supremacists, and Christian nationalists. “A thousand years ago, after years of ceding ground to the conquering Muslim hordes, the Pope ordered military action to save Europe”specifies Pete Hegseth in his book about this motto.
Another escapade, in a video that has reappeared these days and which is circulating on the networks, we see him participating in an ax throwing competition and missing the target. The weapon hits a drummer who is nearby and who narrowly escapes serious injury.
