Opposite to Rumor, Pete Hegseth Does Not Have Nazi Tattoos

On Nov. 12, 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Pete Hegseth, an Military veteran and Fox Information host, for secretary of protection. Following the announcement, as web customers started to analysis and share details about Hegseth, posts appeared on social media platforms variously claiming that Hegseth wears tattoos consisting of of white nationalist, Christian nationalist and/or Nazi symbols. 

In a podcast appearance hosted by former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan, Hegseth mentioned that in President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, he had been faraway from the occasion’s ‘s safety element due to one in all his tattoos. According to the Department of Defense, 12 Nationwide Guardsmen had been faraway from inauguration safety as a precaution resulting from stories of “questionable conduct,” together with however not restricted to extremism. If Hegseth is to be believed, he was a type of 12.

By analyzing Hegseth’s social media accounts, Snopes was capable of establish virtually all of his tattoos, which may very well be categorized into two totally different classes: tattoos representing Hegseth’s army service and patriotism, and tattoos representing his Christian religion.

We must always be aware we reached out to each Hegseth and Fox Information for remark and can replace this story if we hear again.

The Patriotic Tattoos

Hegseth’s tattoos referencing his army service and patriotism didn’t have any direct connection to neo-Nazis, Christian nationalism or white suprematist ideology. This group of tattoos included:

• The phrases “We The Individuals” from the U.S. Structure
• The 12 months 1775 in Roman numerals (MDCCLXXV)
• A stylized American flag with its backside stripe changed by an AR-15 assault rifle
• A hoop of stars round his elbow (probably a reference to the Betsy Ross flag)
• A pair of crossed muskets (which normally represents military service)
• Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” political cartoon from 1754
• The patch of the 187th Infantry Regiment, of which Hegseth was a member

(Instagram consumer petehegseth)

There was one tattoo Snopes could not discover a good angle on within the pictures out there, however primarily based on what’s seen, it would not seem problematic, both: a pink quantity “7” in a mode one would possibly discover when taking part in a slot machine.

(Instagram consumer petehegseth)

The Christian Tattoos

Hegseth has 4 totally different tattoos referencing his Christian religion, and that is the group containing symbols many recognized as problematic. None of those tattoos have direct connections to Nazi or white supremacist ideologies, although no less than one has been linked to Christian nationalism.

First and easiest are the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P) in a circle on Hegseth’s higher arm. Chi and rho are the primary two letters within the Greek spelling of Jesus Christ’s title, and the paired symbols have been used since Roman times to symbolize Christianity. 

Subsequent, Hegseth has a sword contained inside a cross tattooed on the within of his forearm. This can be a reference to the Bible passage Matthew 10:34, which reads: “Don’t suppose that I’ve come to carry peace to the earth. I didn’t come to carry peace, however a sword.” Alongside the blade of the sword in Hegseth’s tattoo, Hebrew letters spell “Yeshua,” or Jesus. Matthew 10 is a chapter by which Jesus Christ tells his disciples to unfold the phrase of God, noting afterward in that verse that “whoever doesn’t take up their cross and comply with me is just not worthy of me.”

The 2 tattoos most ceaselessly cited as problematic each connect with the Crusades, when European armies invaded the “Close to East” with a objective of conquering Jerusalem from the Muslims and inserting it beneath Catholic management. Christian nationalists and different far-right actions have lengthy glorified the Crusades. In a 2023 paper in regards to the historical past of 1 explicit Campaign music, medieval historian and musician Kate Arnold wrote the next:

The crusades and medievalist tropes usually have a historical past of being appropriated within the promotion of right-wing, nationalist and racist agendas, from the beginnings of medieval research and the parallel rise of ‘Romantic nationalism’ within the nineteenth century, by means of twentieth-century Fascist and Nazi constructions of the medieval previous as a type of ethnically ‘pure’ golden age, to modern-day white supremacists within the USA styling themselves ‘alt-knights’.

On his proper pectoral, Hegseth has a big image known as the “Jerusalem Cross,” which consists of 1 giant Greek cross and 4 small Greek crosses, one in every quadrant. (It’s not, as some on-line claimed, a swastika). Immediately, it is a image associated with the Crusades, though Snopes couldn’t discover any medieval sources straight mentioning the cross. On his bicep, Hegseth has the phrases “Deus Vult,” Latin for “God wills it.” That phrase was a rallying cry of the First Crusade, and may have even been used by Pope Urban II in 1095 when he ordered the First Campaign to start. In the course of the Jan., 6. 2021, Capitol riots, at least one flag flown read “Deus Vult”.

(Instagram consumer petehegseth)

This isn’t to say that any of those tattoos show Hegseth is a Christian nationalist. Nonetheless, the declare surfaced for a motive — Hegseth has no less than one tattoo straight referencing the Crusades, an occasion that many Christian nationalists glorify. In Hegseth’s 2020 guide “American Crusade,” he straight referenced the Crusades when discussing the distinction between “peaceable Muslims” and “Islamist Muslims,” in keeping with the progressive analysis group Media Matters. 

“Identical to the Christian crusaders who pushed again the Muslim hordes within the twelfth century,” Hegseth wrote, “American Crusaders might want to muster the identical braveness in opposition to Islamists at present.” 

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