In the statement where he announced his election, Trump praised the combat experience of Hegseth and his support for the Armed Forces and war veterans.
“Pete is 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 go backwards,” Trump noted.
In addition to having served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hegseth was also featured in Guantanamo, Cuba.
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Has supported Trump since his first government, between 2017 and 2021.
Hegseth He has no experience in leadership positions in large organizations, nor in national security.
The AP agency reported that although some Republican legislators responded with restraint to the announcement of Trumpothers described the experience as Hegseth in combat as an advantage or said that He was “tremendously capable.”.
This is what is known about him.
Host on Fox News
Pete Hegseth He has collaborated with the Fox News network since 2014. He is co-host of the popular program “Fox & Friends Weekend“, where Trump He has been a regular guest.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Fox News called Hegseth of “exceptional presenter in Fox & Friends y Fox Nation and author of best-sellers for Fox News Books for almost a decade.”
“His ideas and analysis, especially about the Army, resonated deeply with our viewers and made the program the great success it is today,” the statement said.
Born in Minnesota, Hegseth graduated in Arts from Princeton Universitywhere he was editor of The Princeton Tory, a conservative magazine for which he wrote about seeing the statue of Saddam Hussein torn down in Baghdad in 2003. He also has a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Hegseth He is the author of the best-seller “Times The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free”which was published in June and focuses on the plight of members of the US Armed Forces and the lack of support they face upon returning to civilian life.
When he nominated him, Trump praised the book by noting that it spent nine weeks on the best-seller list compiled by the diario The New York Times.
In June, at a rally in Las Vegas, Trump encouraged his followers to buy Hegseth’s book after promising that if he won: “The things woke They will disappear within 24 hours. I can assure you.”
In the United States, the term woke has become synonymous with left-wing or liberal policies who advocate for things like racial and social equity, feminism, the LGBT movement, the use of gender-neutral pronouns, multiculturalism, the use of vaccines, ecological activism and the right to abort, BBC Mundo explained.
Defends soldiers accused of crimes
Hegseth has campaigned on behalf of military personnel accused of war crimes. He advocated for them on his show and on the Internet, interviewing their relatives.
The New York Times recalled that in 2019 Hegseth lobbied hard in favor of the senior non-commissioned officer Edward Gallaghera member of the Navy SEAL who was convicted by a military court of war crimes in Iraq. Trump revoked a demotion ordered as punishment and then fired the secretary of the Navy, whom Hegseth had criticized aggressively.
“From the beginning, these were overzealous prosecutors who did not give the benefit of the doubt to those who pulled the trigger”Hegseth told Gallagher’s defender on Fox News.
Gallagher had been indicted for the murder of a member of the Islamic Statein addition to the death of two more people in Iraq, but He was only convicted of the minor crime of taking a photo with the corpse of a prisoner.
In 2019 Trump He also pardoned a former Army commando who was to stand trial for the murder of a suspected Afghan bomb maker, as well as a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to shoot three Afghans, killing two.
Question the role of women in the Armed Forces
Hegseth has questioned the role of women in combat and has pushed for the US Army to be more lethal, the AP agency reported.
“Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means the casualties are worse.”said Hegseth last week during an interview on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast.
“I am clearly saying that we should not have women in combat roles; It has not made us more effective, it has not made us more lethal“It has made fighting more complicated,” he added.
Telemundo recalled that the Pentagon first opened all combat positions to women in 2015, a historic policy change intended to reflect changing attitudes around gender limitations within the military. Women represent more than 17% of the military force on active dutyaccording to the Department of Defense.
In the same podcast, Hegseth stated that in the second term of Trump, “Any general who has been involved, general, admiral, whatever, who has been involved in anything related to the filthy progressive DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), will have to go”.
The first order of business, he maintained, would be to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General CQ Brown Jr., who, in his opinion, has promoted a “progressive” agenda.
“The Pentagon likes to say ‘our diversity is our strength.’ What a load of rubbish. “In the Armed Forces, our diversity is not our strength, our unity is our strength,” he said on Fox.
Opinion…
In this case Trump prioritizes loyalty over ability
By Andrés Gómez de la Torre
Specialist in Defense and Intelligence issues
The nomination of Pete Hegseth on Trump’s part, since this conservative communicator linked to Fox News has no experience in the Defense sector in the United States. Trump has described him as a tough man aligned with his vision and policies, so I believe that loyalty is taking precedence over experience or background.
Trump has been very clear in saying that Hegseth is very aligned with the concept of America First and MAGA. He is a very conservative man who has criticized the issue of inclusion in the Defense sector and the female presence in the Armed Forces.
Obviously, he has no experience in strategic and national security issues. But Everything indicates that President-elect Trump prefers loyalty rather than abilityand Hegseth is probably more of an executor of Defense policy than a designer of it. His main asset is that he is a media personality.
We must not lose sight of the fact that There is a new slogan that is emerging in the United States for the conduct of defense in the next Trump administration, which is “Peace through strength.”.
The main challenge that Hegseth will have, if he is ratified by the Senate, will be to reinforce the nuclear and conventional defense apparatus of the United States in an extremely convulsed world, and also manage a very large budget that has to do with the modernization of the Forces. Armed.
Hegseth’s profile is diametrically opposite to that of Marco Rubio in the Secretary of State, since the senator is a character with a lot of political experience, with an active role in the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate.
The United States Department of Defense
It has a budget of more than $800 billion, with about 1.3 million troops on active duty and another 1.4 million in the National Guard, Reserves and civilian employees deployed around the world.
His extramarital relationship with Jennifer Rauchet
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The CNN network recalled that within Fox News, employees whispered about the infidelity of Hegseth to his second wife, Samantha, with Jennifer Rauch, a producer of the channel’s morning show.
CNN journalist Brian Stelter interviewed a Fox executive for his book “Hoax” (2020), who confirmed the romance and told him that Rauchet showed favoritism towards Hegseth.
Hegseth and Rauchet revealed their relationship to Fox management when she was pregnant and he he was still married.
Rauchet was moved to another Fox show so the pair would not work together.
In 2019, when the couple’s daughter turned two years old, Hegseth and Rauchet married at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck in New Jersey, CNN said. Family members wore caps inspired by Trump what they said “LET’S MAKE WEDDINGS BIG AGAIN”, he added.
An accident that went viral
In 2015, Hegseth went viral after hitting him in the arm with a axe to a US Army sergeant during a “Fox & Friends” segment.
The video of the event shows the ax flying toward a target, but it ends up accidentally hitting Jeffrey Prosperie, who had been invited to the program for the 240th anniversary of the founding of the army.
Hegseth He ended up being sued, but this lawsuit would have been closed after an out-of-court settlement.
Concerns about his nomination
“There are reasons to worry that this is not a serious enough person as a policymaker or implementer to successfully do the job,” said about Hegseth Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: Hegseth’s lack of national security experience will make Senate confirmation difficult.
“I think Trump got tired of fighting with his defense secretaries and chose someone who would be loyal to him,” Cancian said.
According to Univision, a senior military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to interview the media, said that Hegseth’s selection raises questions about whether he has the practical experience to manage a large department with a huge budget.