Pete Hegseth

Peter Brian Hegseth known as Pete Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) is an American television presenter, author, and Army National Guard officer who is to be the nominee for United States Secretary of Defense in Donald Trump‘s second cabinet. A political commentator for Fox News, he was previously the executive director of Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.

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Pete Hegseth
United States Secretary of Defense
Nominee
Assuming office TBD
President	Donald Trump
Succeeding	Lloyd Austin
Personal details
Born	Peter Brian Hegseth June 6, 1980 (age 44) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouses	Meredith Schwarz ​ ​ (m. 2004; div. 2009)​ Samantha Deering ​ ​ (m. 2010; div. 2017)​ Jennifer Rauchet ​ (m. 2019)​
Children	7
Education	Princeton University (BA) Harvard University (MPP)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	2003–present
Rank	Major
Unit	Minnesota Army National Guard
Battles/wars	Iraq War War in Afghanistan
Awards	Bronze Star (x2) Army Commendation Medal (x2) National Defense Service Medal Global War on Terrorism Service Medal Expert Infantryman Badge Combat Infantryman Badge

Hegseth has been active in conservative and Republican politics since his days as an undergraduate at Princeton University. In 2016, he emerged as a strong supporter and ally of Donald Trump‘s presidential candidacy, and served as an occasional advisor to Trump throughout the latter’s first term as president. He reportedly persuaded Trump to pardon three American soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes related to the shooting of non-combatants in Iraq. Hegseth, who was a platoon leader at Guantanamo Bay during his military service, defended the treatment of inmates detained there.

Hegseth was considered to lead the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration, prior to the selection of David Shulkin in 2017. In November 2024, president-elect Trump announced that he intends to nominate Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.

Pete Hegseth was born in Minneapolis and raised in nearby Forest Lake. He attended Forest Lake Area High School and received his Bachelor of Arts at Princeton University in 2003. In 2013, he received a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

At Princeton, Hegseth was the publisher of The Princeton Tory, a conservative student-run publication. He also played on the Princeton Tigers men’s basketball team.

Hegseth and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, divorced in 2009. He married his second wife, Samantha Deering, in 2010; they have three children.

In August 2017, while still married to Deering, Hegseth had a daughter with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet, with whom he was having an extramarital relationship. He and Deering divorced in August 2017. Hegseth and Rauchet, who has three young children from her first marriage, married in August 2019.

Following graduation from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst and was also commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard. In 2004 his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where he served as an Infantry platoon leader with the Minnesota Army National Guard. His unit was under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment 101st Airborne Division. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, where he held the position of infantry platoon leader and, later in Samarra, as Civil–Military Operations Officer. During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.

He returned to active duty in 2012 as a captain. He deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard and acted as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul. 

Upon return from Iraq, Hegseth worked briefly at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. According to his LinkedIn page, Hegseth left the conservative think tank in 2007 to work at Vets For Freedom as executive director. His role included responding to the Federal Election Commission as “treasurer” of the organization. He worked at Vets for Freedom until 2012. The organization advocated a greater troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2012, Hegseth formed the political action committee MN PAC. An APM Reports analysis found that while Hegseth ran the MN PAC political action committee, one third of its $15,000 in funds were spent on Christmas parties for families and friends. Campaign finance laws in Minnesota do not prohibit such spending. Less than half of the PAC’s resources was spent on candidates, and as of March 2018, the PAC had closed its account with the state board.

Hegseth was the executive director for Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers. The group advocated greater privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). According to his LinkedIn page, he left the group in 2015.

While Hegseth was its chief executive, Concerned Veterans for America hired his brother Philip to work for the non-profit and paid him $108,000 according to tax records from 2016 and 2017. Asked about it, Hegseth’s lawyer said that Philip, a May 2015 university graduate, was qualified for the media relations job, and noted there is no prohibition against private entities hiring family members.

In 2012, Hegseth ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota. He withdrew from the race after the May 2012 convention, before the Republican primary election in August, both events in which Kurt Bills won the nomination.

During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Hegseth initially backed Marco Rubio, then Ted Cruz, and ultimately Donald Trump. Since then, Hegseth has emerged as a strong Trump supporter. As a Fox News personality, he frequently criticized the media and Democrats. He criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. Hegseth has appeared on Fox News Channel, as well as on CNN and MSNBC.

Hegseth joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014. In December 2018, Hegseth co-hosted Fox News Channel’s All-American New Year with Fox Business Network’s Kennedy, during which a pre-recorded telephone interview between him and President Trump was broadcast. He has been a regular guest on Unfiltered with Dan Bongino since 2021.

On June 14, 2015, Hegseth accidentally hit a West Point drummer with an axe while filming a live TV segment in honor of Flag Day. The drummer said that he sustained “only minor injuries.” The New York Daily News reported that in a later segment, the drummer was “seen cheerfully speaking on camera as if the accident never took place.”

In November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he intends to nominate Hegseth to serve as the next Secretary of Defense.

Questions about Hegseth’s qualifications have been raised by Democrats, Republicans, and those close to President-elect Trump, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying, “Wow,” and numerous defense officials saying, “Everyone is simply shocked.”
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Hegseth wrote the foreword to the 2017 book The Case Against the Establishment (ISBN 978-1-6826-1474-7) by Nick Adams and Dave Erickson. His own books include:

• Hegseth, Pete (2016). In the Arena. Threshold Editions. ISBN 978-1-4767-4934-1.
• Hegseth, Pete (2020). American Crusade. Center Street. ISBN 978-1-5460-9874-4.
• Hegseth, Pete (2022). Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation. Broadside Books. ISBN 978-0-06-321504-7.
• Hegseth, Pete (2024). The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. Broadside Books. ISBN 978-0-0633-8942-7.