President-elect Donald Trump’s protection secretary decide, Pete Hegseth, a Fox Information host and navy veteran, has confronted allegations of sexual assault and questions on his tattoos and their attainable connection to extremist teams.
Readers requested PolitiFact whether or not Hegseth’s tattoos barred him from serving within the Nationwide Guard throughout President Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. Hegseth has a number of tattoos, and two are of a picture and a phrase usually related to extremist teams: a chest tattoo of the Jerusalem cross and an arm tattoo of the Latin phrase, “Deus Vult,” which implies “God wills it.”
Hegseth has said in multiple interviews this 12 months that his Nationwide Guard service orders have been revoked earlier than Biden’s inauguration due to his Jerusalem cross tattoo, which he described as “a Christian image.” Hegseth didn’t point out the “Deus Vult” tattoo in these interviews.
The “Deus Vult” tattoo prompted one other Nationwide Guard member to flag him as a attainable “insider risk” earlier than the inauguration due to the phrase’s affiliation with “supremacist teams,” The Related Press reported.
PolitiFact requested the Nationwide Guard whether or not Hegseth was blocked from serving throughout Biden’s inauguration due to his tattoos, however the guard declined to remark. We additionally contacted Hegseth’s employer, Fox Information, however didn’t obtain a reply earlier than publication.
When requested for touch upon Hegseth’s tattoos being related to extremist teams, Steven Cheung, a Trump transition staff spokesperson, mentioned, “Pete Hegseth devoted his whole life as a warrior for the troops and for our nation. … With Pete as our Secretary of Protection, America’s enemies are on discover and our navy can be nice once more.”
Hegseth pushed again on reporting about his tattoos’ affiliation with extremist teams. “They’ll goal me — I don’t give a rattling — however this kind of concentrating on of Christians, conservatives, patriots and on a regular basis Individuals will cease on DAY ONE at (Trump’s) DoD,” he wrote Nov. 15 on X, utilizing shorthand for the Protection Division.
Hegseth has denied the sexual assault allegation. His legal professional told CBS News that Hegseth settled along with his accuser to keep away from being fired by Fox Information over the allegation. Hegseth has mentioned the encounter was consensual.
Christianity and spiritual historical past consultants informed PolitiFact the Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus Vult” are rooted within the Crusades, which have been a collection of non secular wars between Christians and Muslims. The symbols have modern-day ties to far-right and white supremacist teams.
Each the Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus Vult” date to the eleventh century when the Crusades started, consultants mentioned. The Catholic church in Europe organized violent navy expeditions to retake management of the Holy Land from Muslims.
Matthew Taylor, senior scholar on the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Research who focuses on Christian extremism, mentioned that in response to legends, in response to Pope City II’s speech calling for the First Campaign in 1095, the gang chanted “Deus Vult,” or “God wills it,” and that turned the Crusades’ motto.
The thought of the mantra was that “not solely ought to Christians go and take again, particularly Jerusalem, however actually the whole thing of the lands that Jesus lived in as rightly Christian property, however that it’s God’s will. It’s God’s mandate. That there’s a divine mandate for this violence, particularly in opposition to Muslims,” Taylor mentioned.
Graphic of Jerusalem Cross (Wikimedia)
One of many symbols Crusaders wore was the Jerusalem cross, often known as the crusader cross, consultants mentioned.
At present, the Jerusalem cross isn’t a typical Christian image, neither is the phrase “Deus Vult,” mentioned Matthew Gabriele, a Virginia Tech medieval research professor. Some small sects of mainstream religions, such because the Catholic Order of the Holy Sepulchre, use the Jerusalem cross.
Nevertheless, each the cross and the Latin phrase “Deus Vult” are well-liked amongst right-wing extremist teams, consultants mentioned. Flags bearing the crusader cross and “Deus Vult” have been flown throughout a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The phrase “Deus Vult” was additionally on flags on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. A gunman who killed eight folks in 2023 in Allen, Texas, had swastika and “Deus Vult” tattoos.
Though the Jerusalem cross “doesn’t all the time essentially connote an endorsement of the Crusades,” Taylor mentioned, far-right and neo-Nazi teams use the image. “‘Deus Vult’ is much more prominently embraced (by extremist teams) as a really aggressive imaginative and prescient of Christian conquest,” he mentioned.
When utilized in mixture, the Jerusalem cross and “Deus Vult” are “an invocation of the declare that crusader violence and its atrocities (together with the bloodbath of civilians) was official,” mentioned Tom Hill, president and govt director of the Heart for Peace Diplomacy, a nonpartisan group working to finish and forestall wars.
“It’s this bloody, militant intent that comes first when in search of to grasp its present utilization as a logo for these pledging their allegiances in modern politics — and for this reason it has been appropriated by the so-called ‘alt proper,’” Hill mentioned.
Hegseth joined the U.S. Military Reserves in Could 2001. A couple of 12 months later, he joined the Nationwide Guard, serving in New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He was deployed to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan and earned two Bronze Stars and a fight infantry badge. When Hegseth retired in March 2021, he held the rank of main, the Nationwide Guard mentioned.
Following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, there was heightened safety for Biden’s inauguration two weeks later.
Hegseth said in a Nov. 7 “Shawn Ryan Present” podcast interview that originally he was among the many 25,000 Nationwide Guard members known as to serve in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration. However a day earlier than the occasion, Hegseth mentioned, his commanding officer known as him to say he was not wanted.
“I used to be deemed an extremist due to a tattoo by my Nationwide Guard unit in Washington, D.C., and my orders have been revoked to protect the Biden inauguration,” Hegseth mentioned on the podcast, including that he determined to retire from the guard after this.
Hegseth mentioned the tattoo that “received me disinvited” was the one on his chest of the Jerusalem cross, which seems like a big cross with 4 smaller crosses, one in every nook.
“It’s a Christian image. That’s all it’s,” Hegseth mentioned.
One other member of the District of Columbia Nationwide Guard who in January 2021 was managing safety and dealing on an anti-terrorism staff raised considerations about one other of Hegseth’s tattoos.
Retired Grasp Sgt. DeRicko Gaither shared an e mail with the AP that he despatched Jan. 14, 2021. He wrote that Hegseth’s “Deus Vult” tattoo is “related to supremacist teams.” Gaither additionally wrote that the tattoo violates the Army’s rule prohibiting tattoos anyplace on the physique with extremist phrases or pictures.
“Sir, with the data offered this falls alongside the road of Insider Risk and that is what we as members of the U.S. Military, District of Columbia Nationwide Guard and the Anti-Terrorism/Drive Safety Workforce try to forestall,” Gaither wrote.
After vetting from the FBI, 12 Nationwide Guard members have been faraway from responsibility for Biden’s inauguration due to extremist statements or ties to right-wing extremist teams, the AP reported in January 2021. It’s unclear whether or not Hegseth was amongst this group.
This reality verify was initially published by PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this reality verify here.
