Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major with experience leading two political advocacy organizations has been chosen to take on the challenging role of U.S. defense secretary.
Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major with experience leading two political advocacy organizations has been chosen to take on the challenging role of U.S. defense secretary.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday his intent to nominate Pete Hegseth, 44, as the first Pentagon chief in his upcoming second term. Hegseth, a host on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, where he earned the Combat Infantryman Badge. In his civilian career, he has advocated for the privatization of veterans’ health care and expressed concerns that diversity initiatives have undermined military strength.
This announcement came alongside Trump’s other selections for his national-security team, including John Ratcliffe, former Director of National Intelligence, for the CIA; South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for the Department of Homeland Security; and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. These nominations, expected to be formalized post-inauguration, would require Senate confirmation.
Hegseth, an Army veteran, previously served as the executive director of the advocacy groups Concerned Veterans for America and Vets for Freedom.
After graduating from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard. In 2004, he was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, where he served as an infantry platoon leader, according to his Fox News biography. Later, he was deployed to Iraq, where he was awarded a second Army Commendation Medal, Bronze Star Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge. After his tour in Iraq, he was deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard in 2012, where he worked as a senior counterinsurgency instructor in Kabul.
Hegseth, 44, has authored several books, with his latest, “The War of Warriors,” described in a Fox News summary as depicting “the kind of men prepared to confront the dangers the Left pretends don’t exist.”
Hegseth’s military background began with the ROTC program at Princeton. After graduating, he served at Guantanamo Bay with the New Jersey Army National Guard until 2005. The following year, he was deployed to Iraq with the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an infantry platoon leader and later as a civil-military operations officer in Samarra.
He returned to active duty in 2012 as a captain with the Minnesota Army National Guard and served as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul. Currently, Hegseth holds the rank of major in the Individual Ready Reserve and has been awarded two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge for his overseas service.
On veterans’ issues, Hegseth has been an outspoken advocate. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the executive director of Vets for Freedom, a nonprofit organization aimed at educating Americans on the importance of achieving success in Iraq and Afghanistan based on direct knowledge of military strategy and tactics in these regions.
In 2012, Hegseth became CEO of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), identified by the National Review as the nation’s largest center-right veterans’ group. He left CVA in 2015.
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