Pete Hegseth, who has been named by President-elect Donald Trump as the new defense secretary, has previously accused China of "building an army to defeat the U.S." and taken swipes at how the U.S. media portray Vladimir Putin.
The co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend served in Afghanistan and Iraq, receiving the Combat Infantryman Badge. During his time with Fox News, he has developed a friendship with Trump who has made regular appearances on the show, the Associated Press reported.
Trump's choice of Hegseth is markedly different from his first term when he selected a four-star general, James Mattis, and an Army secretary, Mark Esper, to lead the Pentagon. Mattis eventually resigned and Esper was later fired.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the AP that Trump was "tired of fighting" with his secretaries of defense and so chose someone "loyal to him." Cancian added that, while Hegseth had "an excellent background as a junior officer", he lacks "the senior national security experience that secretaries need."
Mark Shanahan, a U.S. political expert and associate professor at the University of Surrey, England, told Newsweek that Trump will value Hegseth's television appeal. "While Hegseth didn't start as a Trump loyalist, he has become an unquestioning one," Shanahan said.
As Trump builds his national security team, Newsweek looks at what Hegseth has said about the countries that will present Washington's key foreign policy challenges.
China
Hegseth has published a book, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, in which he criticizes the Pentagon for "following the rest of our country off the cliff of cultural chaos and weakness".
The South China Morning Post reported that Hegseth, in promoting the book on The Shawn Ryan Show, said Beijing was "building an army specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America."
Russia
Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin was scrutinized during his first term in the White House and his approach to Moscow is a critical foreign policy priority.
However, Hegseth has suggested that Trump was playing with the media when the Republican praised Putin, telling Jesse Watters Primetime in 2022 that the Russian president "lives rent-free in the minds of our media."
"No organism, no entity has done more to spread Russian propaganda and to prop up the strongman that is Vladimir Putin than our very own media," Hegseth said, adding that Trump "was happy to troll them on it as he continues to do to this moment because they can't resist it."
All eyes are on what the Trump administration will mean for the war in Ukraine that Putin started, especially given the president-elect's disdain for continued American aid for Kyiv and insistence that he can end the war quickly.
Regarding the war, Hegseth said on Fox News' The Faulkner Focus in February 2022, "What is happening in Ukraine is important. But it pales in comparison to the crime I see in my streets, to the wokeness I see in my culture, to the inflation I see at my pocketbook, to the real border I care about, which is the southern border, which is wide open."
Israel
Hegseth has been an advocate of Israel in his coverage, which included the series Battle in the Holy Land: Israel at War about the Gaza war.
In reporting his appointment, The Times of Israel noted how, when asked about seeing biblical and historical sites in Israel, Hegseth told the Jewish Press in a 2016 interview that the country "was not some mystical land that can be dismissed", adding, "It's the story of God's chosen people."
"I have come to really appreciate the Jewish heritage and the Jewish state," Hegseth said. "I understand how geopolitically we are linked and how critical it is that we stand by such a strong ally."
English (US) ·