Peter Brian Hegseth is an American government official and former television personality. Since 2025, he has served as the 29th United States Secretary of Defense.
In 1926, Notes on Democracy was published.
In 1930, I'll Take My Stand was published.
In 1941, The Managerial Revolution was published.
In 1948, Ideas Have Consequences was published.
In 1951, God and Man at Yale was published.
In 1953, The Conservative Mind was published.
In 1960, The Conscience of a Conservative was published.
In 1964, A Choice Not an Echo was published.
On June 6, 1980, Peter Brian Hegseth was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the first child of Brian and Penelope "Penny" (Haugen) Hegseth.
In 1987, both A Conflict of Visions and The Closing of the American Mind were published.
In 1999, Hegseth graduated as valedictorian from Forest Lake Area High School.
In 2001, The Death of the West was published.
In 2001, the editors of The Princeton Tory criticized Halle Berry for accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Monster's Ball" "on behalf of an entire race".
In April 2002, Hegseth, as publisher of The Princeton Tory, declared he would "defend the pillars of Western civilization against the distractions of diversity".
In 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army after graduating from Princeton.
In 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard.
In 2004, Hegseth completed basic training at Fort Benning and served as a Minnesota Army National Guardsman at Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 11 months, leading a platoon guarding detainees.
In 2004, Pete Hegseth married Meredith Schwarz at the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Minnesota.
By August 2006, Hegseth moved to Manhattan and began working at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
In August 2006, Pete Hegseth opposed Operation Iron Triangle, a raid that resulted in the death of three Iraqi men, which he described as "atrocities" at the University of Virginia.
In May 2007, Hegseth appeared at a presidential campaign fundraiser for John McCain.
In October 2008, Pete Hegseth disagreed with "Don't ask, don't tell", the United States's position on homosexuality in the military at the time, but noted that "Radical Islam is a far greater threat."
In December 2008, Meredith Schwarz filed for divorce after Pete Hegseth admitted to five affairs.
In 2008, Hegseth's organization, Vets for Freedom, began supporting John McCain in the presidential election.
By January 2009, Vets for Freedom had accrued hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, leading to an internal campaign to oust Hegseth.
In November 2009, Pete 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.
In 2009, Hegseth enrolled in the Harvard Kennedy School.
In 2010, Hegseth deployed with the Minnesota Army National Guard as a counterinsurgency instructor in Kabul, Afghanistan.
In 2010, Pete Hegseth married Samantha Deering, with whom he has three children.
By 2011, Hegseth was removed from leadership after Vets for Freedom merged with Military Families United.
In February 2012, Hegseth decided to enter the Republican primary for the United States Senate election in Minnesota.
In a March 2012 interview with National Review, Hegseth advocated for premium support in Medicare, opposed contraception mandates, and described the Keystone Pipeline as a choice between jobs and environmental impact.
In 2013, Hegseth graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a degree in public policy.
By June 2014, Hegseth was given a position as a regular contributor to Fox News.
In 2014, Hegseth's group, Concerned Veterans of America, criticized President Obama for the Veterans Health Administration controversy.
In 2014, after completing his tour, Hegseth was promoted to major and assigned to the Individual Ready Reserve.
In 2015, Hegseth threw an axe during a Flag Day event in New York City, accidentally hitting a drummer from the United States Military Academy, leading to a lawsuit.
In January 2016, Hegseth left Concerned Veterans for America after allegations of financial mismanagement and alcoholism surfaced, including a whistleblower report accusing him of fostering a sexist workplace.
In 2016 on Fox News, Hegseth criticized Hillary Clinton for her email controversy, stating that her "recklessness in handling information" would usually lead to job firings and potential criminal charges, while also risking foreign access to sensitive information and harming relationships with allies.
In 2016, Hegseth served as an advisor to President Donald Trump after supporting his campaign.
In 2016, Hillbilly Elegy was published.
In 2016, he was briefly a host on TheBlaze before regularly hosting Fox & Friends Weekend after Ailes's resignation.
In January 2017, Hegseth became an official co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend.
In October 2017, Pete Hegseth allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course in Monterey, California, while scheduled to speak at the California Federation of Republican Women convention. He was investigated but not criminally charged.
From 2017 to 2024, Hegseth co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend.
In 2017, Betsy DeVos confirmation was decided by the vice president, which was the first time that happened in US history. Hegseth's confirmation was the second time it happened.
In 2017, Pete Hegseth and Samantha Deering filed for divorce.
In 2017, Pete Hegseth wrote the foreword to The Case Against the Establishment, a book written by Nick Adams and Dave Erickson.
In 2017, The Benedict Option was published.
In January 2018, Monterey County district attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni declined to file charges against Pete Hegseth, saying that proof beyond a reasonable doubt was not established regarding the alleged sexual assault.
After Shulkin fell out of favor with the Trump administration in March 2018, Hegseth positioned himself as a potential candidate for secretary of veterans affairs.
In April 2018, Pete Hegseth's mother, Penny, sent an email accusing her son of having mistreated women for years.
In October 2018, Trump repeated claims Hegseth made correlating video games with mass shootings after two mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton in August 2019.
Hegseth hosted All-American New Year (2018) with commentator Lisa Kennedy.
In 2018, Pete Hegseth experienced a religious transformation after he and his wife, Jennifer, began attending the Colts Neck Community Church in New Jersey.
In 2018, Scouting America allowed girls to join the organization, which Hegseth claimed was attacking 'boy-friendly' spaces. In November 2025, Hegseth proposed eliminating promotion for Eagle Scouts joining the Army due to this change.
In 2018, Why Liberalism Failed was published.
In March 2019, Pete Hegseth posted a video describing Benjamin Netanyahu as a "great friend to the United States" after Netanyahu was expected to be criminally charged for alleged bribery and fraud.
In June 2019, Hegseth joined the District of Columbia Army National Guard as a drilling service member.
In August 2019, Trump repeated claims Hegseth made correlating video games with mass shootings after two mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton.
In 2019 on Fox & Friends, Hegseth described climate change as an attempt at government control.
In 2019, Hegseth hosted the special Battle in Bethlehem on Fox Nation.
In 2019, Hegseth's father, a basketball coach, retired after coaching at high schools across Minnesota.
In 2019, Pete Hegseth married Jennifer Rauchet at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck in New Jersey.
In 2019, the lawsuit resulting from the 2015 axe-throwing incident was resolved in an unspecified way.
In January 2020, Pete Hegseth supported Donald Trump's threat to destroy Iranian cultural sites.
In May 2020, Pete Hegseth claimed that the "communist Chinese" want to "end our civilization". He also 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, Pete Hegseth released American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free.
According to a Fox News executive in Hoax (2020), Jennifer Rauchet favored Pete with airtime and kept putting Pete on TV.
In 2020, Fox & Friends Weekend with co-hosts Will Cain, Rachel Campos-Duffy and Pete Hegseth did not reject claims by Rudy Giuliani that the company's voting machines facilitated voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In 2020, Hegseth defended Trump's policies in his first term, including his interactions with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
In 2020, Hegseth wrote the book "American Crusade".
In 2020, Pete Hegseth paid the accuser as part of a non-disclosure agreement after she threatened litigative action.
In March 2021, Hegseth was barred from serving on duty at Joe Biden's inauguration after being flagged as an "insider threat" due to a tattoo.
In 2021, Hegseth defended Trump's policies in his first term, including the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.
In 2022, Hegseth began hosting "The Miseducation of America" on Fox Nation, criticizing "the Left's educational agenda".
In 2022, Hegseth protested the offering of classes in critical race theory at Harvard University by reportedly writing "Return to sender" on his degree and sending it back.
In 2022, Pete Hegseth co-authored Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation with David Goodwin.
By 2023, Hegseth had also hosted the series Battle in the Holy Land (2019–2023) and The Life of Jesus (2022–2023) on Fox Nation.
In January 2024, Hegseth resigned from the Individual Ready Reserve, citing the "insider threat" incident in his book "The War on Warriors".
In June 2024, Pete Hegseth published The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.
On November 12, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense after Tom Cotton declined the position. Hegseth subsequently ended his contract with Fox News. The selection of Hegseth was seen as Trump appointing a loyalist with a relative lack of experience.
In November 2024, Pete Hegseth stated that women should not serve in combat roles during a podcast interview with Shawn Ryan.
In November 2024, President-elect Trump nominated Hegseth as his nominee for secretary of defense. Despite facing allegations during his Senate Committee hearing, Hegseth was confirmed by the Senate that month with a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance.
In November 2024, The New York Times obtained an email from Pete Hegseth's mother, Penny, from April 2018, accusing her son of having mistreated women for years.
In November 2024, Vanity Fair reported that Pete 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.
In 2024, Pete Hegseth said that concerns over his Jerusalem cross tattoo caused the District of Columbia National Guard to pull him from a mission to guard the inauguration of President Joe Biden and helped spur him to retire from the military.
In January 2025, NBC News reported that Samantha's sister Danielle had sent an affidavit to senators alleging that Pete Hegseth had made his wife concerned for her safety.
In January 2025, the Associated Press reported that Pete Hegseth had paid the accuser US$50,000.
In March 2025, Hegseth 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 August 2025, Pete Hegseth favorably shared a video from CNN featuring Douglas Wilson, commenting on its content regarding women's roles and rights.
On September 2, 2025, SEAL Team 6 led a strike on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea. Admiral Frank M. "Mitch" Bradley oversaw the operation from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The survivors were considered legitimate targets and a second strike was ordered to complete Hegseth's alleged order to kill everyone.
In November 2025, Hegseth proposed eliminating promotion for Eagle Scouts joining the Army, citing a lack of "masculine values" and "promoting gender confusion." He also threatened to cut Department of Defense support to Scouting America, banning military bases from hosting or sponsoring scout units, claiming the organization was attacking "boy-friendly" spaces by allowing girls to join in 2018. Military families criticized this, fearing harm to military dependent children and the military itself.
On November 24, 2025, Pete Hegseth ordered a review of "serious allegations of misconduct" against Senator Kelly, explicitly mentioning potential "recall to active duty for court-martial procedures or administrative measures". Secretary of the Navy John Phelan was tasked with completing the review by December 10, 2025.
On November 28, 2025, The Washington Post published an article alleging that Pete Hegseth had given a spoken order to kill the survivors of a September 2, 2025, strike led by SEAL Team 6 on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea. Legal experts characterized the alleged orders as murder and a war crime.
December 10, 2025, was the deadline for Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to complete the review of "serious allegations of misconduct" against Senator Kelly, which was ordered by Pete Hegseth on November 24, 2025.
In 2025, Hegseth began serving as the 29th United States Secretary of Defense.
On January 5, 2026, Pete Hegseth issued a Secretarial Letter of Censure against Senator Kelly in his capacity as a retired Navy Captain, without the right to appeal. On the same day, Senator Kelly was notified that Retirement Grade Determination Proceedings would be started based on Hegseth's Letter of Censure.
In January 2026, Claude AI was used by the Pentagon during their operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.
In January 2026, Sec. Hegseth was questioned about a U.S. military plane that attacked a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean. The plane, unmarked and carrying armaments inside, violated Defense Department policy. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson neither confirmed nor denied the reports, citing mission requirements.
In February 2026, Defense Secretary Hegseth threatened Anthropic, the owner of Claude AI, to designate the company a supply chain risk and force them to eliminate restrictions on their AI use by the Defense Department, or he would use the Defense Production Act to compel them. The contract was worth $200 million. The Defense Department also stated that Grok, OpenAI, and Google were close to being approved for use.
In February 2026, Sec. Hegseth announced the Defense Department would eliminate all graduate-level professional military training, fellowships, and certificate programs at Harvard University starting in the fall of 2026 due to the institution's "anti-military bias." The DoD also said it would investigate other universities.
In February 2026, a grand jury declined to return an indictment against Senator Kelly. A federal judge then issued a temporary injunction against Hegseth's proposed actions on Kelly's rank and pension, citing First Amendment concerns.
On February 27, 2026, Scouting America announced they would immediately drop the Citizenship in the Society merit badge, create a military service merit badge, waive registration fees for dependent children of active-duty military, National Guard, and reserve families, and only use the designations male and female on applications.
On March 2, 2026, the Pentagon released a list of 20 partner institutions that Hegseth said exemplified "intellectual freedom". The list included mainly public and a few private universities in Republican leaning states, such as The Citadel, Iowa State University, Clemson University, University of Florida, Auburn University, Baylor University and Liberty University.
On March 4, 2026, Hegseth stated that the Pentagon was "investigating" reports of a deadly airstrike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, Iran, while maintaining that the U.S. military "never targets civilian sites." Evidence indicated that it was the U.S. which most likely bombed the school.
On March 6, 2026, Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei stated that his company would challenge the DoD in court after Sec. Hegseth used the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk on February 27, 2026. Anthropic's partners, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, stated their agreement with Amodei.
On March 8, 2026, OpenAI (the parent company of ChatGPT) announced that their head of robotics, Caitlin Kalinowski, had resigned, stating, "surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got."
On March 10, 2026, Hegseth accused Iran of firing missiles from schools and hospitals and endangering civilians. He also said that Iran is "badly losing" on day 10 of the war.
According to Jan-Werner Müller of The Guardian, as of March 2026, "Pete Hegseth [was] promoting a nihilist cult of death".
In March 2026, Harvard University announced that it would allow active-duty military to defer their admission to the university for up to four years. Students can normally only defer for one year.
In March 2026, Hegseth held a press conference.
In March 2026, military leaders reportedly told service members that the war against Iran, also known as Operation Epic Fury, was part of "God's divine plan" and that President Donald Trump was anointed by Jesus. A commander even quoted the Book of Revelation, saying the war would bring the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation received over 200 complaints, citing violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and reflecting Secretary Hegseth's leadership.
On April 2, 2026, Secretary Hegseth signed a memo allowing military personnel to carry personal firearms on military installations, citing self-defense and Second Amendment rights. While supporters applauded the policy, others expressed concern about its practicality and impact on emergency responses.
On April 3, 2026, Good Friday, the Pentagon hosted a Protestant service in the Pentagon chapel, with Air Force leaders sending an email stating that there would be a Protestant Service and no Catholic Mass. An employee expressed feeling that Catholics were not welcome, and a 40-year Pentagon employee stated that this was the first time a Catholic Good Friday service wasn't offered at the Pentagon Chapel.
On April 15, 2026, Secretary Hegseth quoted a prayer based on lines from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, which includes a passage from Ezekiel 25:17, during a Pentagon prayer session he led. The prayer had reportedly been used by the search and rescue team that saved two downed airmen in Iran earlier that April.
In April 2026, Hegseth compared the press to biblical Pharisees, calling them "the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time", who are "there to witness, to write everything down, to report."
In April 2026, Pete Hegseth controversially quoted what he said was a prayer, that is based on the incorrect biblical quote recited by Samuel L. Jackson's character in the film Pulp Fiction.
In May 2026, the Defense Department announced AI use deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
During his tenure as Secretary of Defense, Hegseth has drawn criticism for actions such as a leaked government group chat, alleged war crimes, promoting Christianity inside the military, using unmarked military planes, and the use of force in the 2026 Iran war.
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