Who Is Pete Hegseth? Career, Military Background…
Pete Hegseth is an American television presenter and Army National Guard veteran who in January 2025 became the 29th United States Secretary of Defense, after a closely contested Senate confirmation.
Hegseth holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton and a master's in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, with deployments to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, and holds two Bronze Stars.
Between his deployments and his cabinet appointment, Hegseth led two veterans' advocacy groups, Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. He joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 and from 2017 onwards co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend, where he became one of the network's most recognisable hosts and a regular informal conduit between the Trump White House and Fox's morning lineup.
President-elect Trump named Hegseth as his choice for Defense Secretary in November 2024. The nomination drew unusually intense scrutiny, including reporting on a 2017 sexual-assault allegation that Hegseth denied and that did not result in charges, and on financial-management questions at the veterans' organisations he had led.
The Senate Armed Services Committee hearings in January 2025 also focused on his views on women in combat roles, on the so-called "warrior ethos" and on his proposals to revise senior officer promotion practices. The full Senate confirmed him by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaker.
Hegseth's early period in office has included reviews of the senior officer corps, changes to Pentagon press access and a public emphasis on recruitment, lethality and what he describes as the restoration of standards. He has also drawn criticism from some retired senior officers for the speed of personnel removals at flag-officer level.
Hegseth is the rare cabinet member who was already a household name before nomination. Search traffic spikes around Pentagon announcements, Senate testimony and any breaking story involving the US military, particularly anything connected to the Middle East or East Asia.
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