The Transformation Of Pete Hegseth: From His Days In The Military To Fox News

This article contains references to sexual assault.

For several years, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth has been a staple on the conservative cable outlet, discussing current events. In November 2024, however, Hegseth found himself on the other side of that equation, making news when President-elect Donald Trump tapped him for a cabinet position in his administration. Not only was Hegseth's nomination met with widespread scorn, but it was also followed by some shocking allegations that have shone the spotlight into the darker aspects of his personal life.

A Princeton graduate and military veteran, Hegseth is best known as co-host of Fox News' "Fox & Friends Weekend." He's also authored several books expressing political views that aren't exactly what one would term middle of the road. For example, in his 2024 book, "The War on Warriors," he blasted the U.S. military's "woke" policies on diversity and inclusion. "America's white sons and daughters are walking away, and who can blame them," he wrote via the Associated Press. Meanwhile, in that book, he describes liberals, who are on the other end of the political spectrum, as "America's domestic enemies."

Hegseth has become a polarizing figure within American politics, even more so now that he's at the forefront of public consciousness. Read on to explore the transformation of Pete Hegseth, from his days in the military to Fox News.

In 1999, Pete Hegseth began his studies at Princeton University. That was where he first began writing about politics as a contributor to the university's right-leaning newspaper, The Princeton Tory, eventually becoming its publisher. "As the publisher of the Tory I strive to defend the pillars of Western civilization against the distractions of diversity," he wrote. Even then, Hegseth displayed a knack for stirring up controversy. Case in point: an editorial declaring that "the homosexual lifestyle is abnormal and immoral."

During his years at Princeton, Hegseth also demonstrated a talent for basketball — not surprising, given that his father was a high school basketball coach. "I grew up obsessively playing basketball as a child and teenager. I wanted to play college basketball, it was always a goal of mine in fact," Hegseth said in an interview with Community Magazine. While attending Princeton, he was a member of the school's team, the Princeton Tigers, when he scored six points during an NCAA tournament match in 2003. 

While it was Hegseth's basketball ability that brought him to Princeton, that invitation only provided the opportunity to play on the team as Princeton does not offer athletic scholarships. Already enrolled in ROTC, he helped pay for his tuition by signing on with the National Guard. "Balancing school, service, summer training, basketball, and The Princeton Tory publication was an exercise in multitasking," admitted Hegseth, who graduated in 2003.

After graduating from Princeton, Pete Hegseth went to work for a Wall Street financial firm, Bear Stearns. Not long after that, his National Guard unit was called up for active duty, and he was deployed to Guantanamo Bay for a year. Upon returning stateside, he learned of a young soldier in Iraq who'd been handing out candy when he was killed by a suicide bomber. Hegseth called the U.S. Army and offered his services as an officer; a few months later, he found himself leading a platoon in an air assault on Baghdad.

When he returned to the U.S. in 2006, Hegseth was frustrated with what he saw as a lack of progress in Iraq due to military strategy. He shared his views in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal; in that piece, "More Troops, Please," Hegseth complained that the Army deployed just enough troops to avoid losing but not enough to actually win and called for a surge in troops. That op-ed became influential within the administration of then-President George W. Bush, ultimately resulting in Bush's controversial plan — which came to be known as the surge — to temporarily increase the number of troops by 20,000.

Hegseth's National Guard unit was subsequently deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he served under the auspices of NATO as a counterinsurgency instructor. Hegseth received several commendations, including two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantry Badge. "Probably the one that I'm most proud of I can share, it's hanging on my wall as the first award I ever got in combat, an Army Commendation Medal," he told Community Magazine.

In 2012, Pete Hegseth was seen as a rising star within the Republican Party and began being groomed to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate against incumbent Amy Klobuchar. "I'm certainly considering it," Hegseth told the Forest Lake Times of his potential Senate bid. "I'm very humbled to be considered." He ultimately entered that race but recognized he would be in for a tough battle against the popular Klobuchar. "We're building this plane while we fly it, and trying to do something in eight months that normally takes two years," Hegseth admitted in an interview with the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. 

Republican strategist Maureen Shaver told MPR News that Hegseth, as a decorated war veteran, could connect with voters in a way that his opponent could not. "I think it's his personal story that's compelling," she said. She also admitted he was facing an uphill battle when it came to fundraising, given that Klobuchar's campaign was sitting on a $4.6-million war chest of campaign funds left over from the previous year.

Hegseth never even made it out of the gate; as The Minnesota Star Tribune reported, he was "trounced" when seeking his party's endorsement as a candidate. Kurt Bills eventually won that endorsement but lost to Klobuchar in a landslide when she handily beat him by a two-to-one margin. 

While his political career may have fizzled before even getting off the ground, Pete Hegseth was becoming a sought-after guest on cable news. Speaking with Community Magazine, he explained that he'd studied politics, not journalism, and never envisioned a career on television. "My first appearance was on 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' [on MSNBC] getting yelled at and cut off like 50 times," he recalled.

He first came to Fox News as a military analyst, with his role on the network expanded once he was tapped to host the weekend edition of "Fox & Friends." As his presence grew on the network, so too did the opportunities. In 2018, he was tapped to co-host Fox News' New Year's Eve festivities. "I'm really excited, honored, and grateful to Fox News for the opportunity," Hegseth said in a statement to Military.com.

Despite all the on-air experience he's amassed since then, Hegseth has insisted he sees himself as neither a journalist nor a broadcaster. "I have no desire for my mug to be on TV for the sake of it," he told Community News, insisting he only began appearing on TV to share his views on topics about which he was passionate. "Then 'Fox & Friends' one day asked if I'd ever thought about trying to host. And they gave me a shot ... 'Fox & Friends' give me a chance [sic] to be a part of shaping the opinion and the debates of the day. And for that I'm grateful."

Of Pete Hegseth's countless appearances on Fox News, one tends to stand out: his infamous 2015 attempt at axe-throwing. During the segment, Hegseth was seen grasping an axe with both hands and then hurling it at a bullseye. The axe, however, came nowhere near the target, instead sailing high atop it and smashing into a drummer with the West Point Band, who was unfortunate to be standing in Hegseth's line of fire. 

A few years later, that drummer — Jeff Prosperie — lawyered up and decided to sue Hegseth, Fox News, and "Fox & Friends." As NBC News reported, Prosperie's 2018 suit alleged that the target had been "negligently placed" in a way that allowed him to be injured, further claiming that the defendants were "negligent, wanton, reckless and careless" in setting up the on-air stunt. He claimed to have experienced "severe and serious personal injuries to his mind and body," in addition to "permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement, and loss of body function."

According to the Associated Press, Prosperie dropped the lawsuit the following year. "The parties have resolved the matter and will make no further comment," Prosperie's attorney, Brandon Cotter, said in a statement.

In 2019, during the first presidency of Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth used his access to the White House to push for a controversial cause. Trump issued pardons for three members of the military who'd been convicted of committing war crimes during their respective service. Trump's decision had reportedly been influenced by Hegseth, who'd undertaken a months-long lobbying effort to convince Trump to grant those pardons. "These are men who went into the most dangerous places on earth with a job to defend us and made tough calls on a moment's notice," Hegseth said, defending the men while appearing on "Fox & Friends." "They're not war criminals, they're warriors."

 Hegseth had swayed Trump's decision, particularly in relation to Edward Gallagher, who allegedly opened fire and killed a group of civilians, including a young girl. That was evident when Trump tweeted that Gallagher was being moved to "less restrictive confinement" on his instructions.

Hegseth took to X (formerly Twitter) for some celebratory gloating that his efforts had been so persuasive. "God bless our Commander-in-Chief," Hegseth tweeted. "A true warfighter's President."

Lobbying the president to pardon alleged war criminals may have engulfed Pete Hegseth in controversy, but so too did some comments he made about the COVID-19 virus in the midst of the global pandemic. During a 2020 appearance on Fox News, Hegseth appeared to be among those downplaying the severity of the virus. In fact, he urged viewers to violate stay-at-home orders and instead get out in public to mix and mingle. That, he claimed, would build herd immunity and ultimately vanquish the virus. "Listen, there's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of misinformation. The 'experts' have been telling us hundreds of thousands of people are going to die. Now that we're learning more, herd immunity is our friend," said Hegseth, as reported by Business Insider. "Healthy people getting out there — they're going to have some courage."

Later in the pandemic, when the Omicron variant emerged, Hegseth suggested that the viral mutations — which is the nature of a virus — weren't simply science but a nefarious manufactured conspiracy to swing elections in Democrats' favor. "Count on a variant about every October, every two years," he declared via Heartland Signal.

To be fair, that skeptical view of scientific fact was right on brand for Hegseth, who had previously said on the network that he hadn't washed his hands in a decade — and explained the dubious reason why. "I inoculate myself. Germs are not a real thing," he said via The Guardian. "I can't see them. Therefore, they're not real."

When Pete Hegseth shot a Fox News segment in which he took a swim in the Hudson River, numerous tattoos could be seen when he emerged shirtless from the water. Most prominent was a large cross on his chest, with four smaller identical crosses surrounding it. Known as the Jerusalem cross, the symbol dates back to the Crusades during the 11th and 12th centuries. Meanwhile, another tattoo on his arm bears the Latin phrase "Deus Vult," translated as "God wills it."

Hegseth contended that those symbols simply reflect his Christian faith. However, both the phrase and the cross have become co-opted by the extremist Christian Nationalist movement — a far-right belief that America was founded as a Christian nation and that the nation's laws should be influenced by the Bible. As a result, concerns emerged that Hegseth was a far-right extremist. "For the record, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, proudly wears a far-right Christian Nationalist 'Deus Vult' tattoo on his arm," tweeted attorney Eric Allen Isaacson. "On his chest he wears a Crusaders' Cross, apparently celebrating the slaughter of Muslims in holy war."

Further evidence of Hegseth's alleged support of Christian Nationalism was offered by Mother Jones, which detailed Hegseth's connections to movers and shakers within the Christian Nationalist movement. Meanwhile, People for the American Way, the civil liberties organization founded by famed TV producer and outspoken liberal Norman Lear, flagged comments Hegseth made in the "CrossPolitic" podcast about launching an "educational insurgency" that would convert a generation of American children to Christian Nationalism. "That's what the crop of these classical Christian schools are gonna do in a generation," Hegseth bragged.

While Pete Hegseth hasn't confirmed whether or not his body ink is reflective of extremist Christian Nationalist beliefs, several of his fellow National Guardsmen felt that they were. Hegseth explained what had taken place when he appeared on The Shawn Ryan Show, revealing that he was one of 12 members of the National Guard who were reportedly removed from serving in a security capacity during the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden. "I was deemed an extremist because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington D.C., and my orders were revoked to guard the Biden inauguration," Hegseth said. "My commander called me a day before, tepidly, and was, like, 'Major, you can just stand down. We don't need you, we're good.' I'm like, 'What do you mean, everybody's there.' He said, like, 'No, no, no ...' he couldn't tell me."

At the time, General Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, explained the action was taken just in case the Guardsman in question did indeed have ties to right-wing militias or other extremist organizations. "Just out of an abundance of caution, we want to make sure that there are no issues at all," Hokanson said, as reported by Newsweek.

During that podcast, Hegseth continued to insist that there was nothing extremist about his tattoos, that they were simply Christian symbols proclaiming his faith. However, the Associated Press obtained an email from a fellow National Guard member who was also serving on an anti-terrorist team, claiming that the phrase "Deus Vult" was closely associated with white supremacist groups and had been embraced by the alt-right. 

After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the president-elect began floating his cabinet picks. Many of those choices generated a significant degree of controversy, ranging from Florida congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general (which was quickly derailed due to an ethics investigation over allegations that Gaetz had trafficked a 17-year-old girl) to Dr. Mehmet Oz and vaccine-hating Robert Kennedy Jr. in key healthcare posts. Arguably, the most controversial announcement was Trump's choice of Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense.

If Hegseth were to be confirmed as defense secretary, he'd oversee a massive budget estimated at $850 billion, along with approximately 3 million military personnel — a pretty big jump from reading a teleprompter in front of a camera. Not surprisingly, Trump's nomination of Hegseth sparked major blowback. In an opinion piece for MSNBC, former Army officer Brandon Friedman pointed to the elephant in the room regarding the possibility that Hegseth could run the Pentagon. "Hegseth is not qualified for this role," Freedman wrote. "He has no particular experience or expertise that would lead any sane person to put him in charge of America's military, including the largest governmental bureaucracy in the world."

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger made an even finer point about Hegseth's nomination when he tweeted, "Wow. Trump picking Pete Hegseth is the most hilariously predictably stupid thing."

Pete Hegseth's lack of qualifications to lead the U.S. Department of Defense wasn't the only thing standing in his way. Shortly after he was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, a bombshell hit: Hegseth had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017. "The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared," Hegseth told reporters via Politico.

It was then revealed that Hegseth had paid off his accuser in order to buy her silence. Hegseth's attorney, Tim Parlatore, sprang into action to do damage control, insisting that the Fox News host had been falsely accused, reported ABC News. The only reason he paid his accuser a settlement, Parlatore explained, was because Hegseth feared that the woman would try to blackmail him over what he claimed was a consensual encounter. In fact, Parlatore implied that if anyone was a victim in this scenario, it was Hegseth. "The complainant was the aggressor in initiating sexual activity," Parlatore added, without revealing how much money Hegseth had paid his accuser.

Further details emerged when the 22-page police report about the alleged sexual assault was released. According to the unidentified accuser, she believed that something had been slipped into her drink, which was when "things got fuzzy" for her. What she does remember was being in a hotel room with Hegseth, claiming that he took her cell phone from her and prevented her from leaving by using his body to block the door. She also told police that she remembered "saying 'no' a lot." Police declined to press charges, however, when they couldn't be certain of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).