Donald Trump selects Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary: A look at the former Fox News anchor's controversial past

US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the post of Defence Secretary believes that women should not serve in combat roles as it “hurts” the purpose of making the military more lethal.

Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has been chosen as the next Secretary of Defence by Trump. The army veteran shares a close rapport with Trump and is not free of controversies. He has often been spotted with Trump and is known to make contentious statements on defence-related matters.

Hegseth, 44, Army National Guard infantry officer who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Hegseth joined Fox News in 2014 as an on-air commentator and later progressed to co-hosting the weekend edition of “Fox & Friends,” the network’s flagship morning show.

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As Trump announced Hegseth to take up the role, he said, “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.”

Here’s how his on-air statements have stoked controversies:

Women’s role in combat makes everything complex

Hegseth has pushed for making the military more lethal and said that allowing women to serve in combat roles hurts that effort.

“Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat, means casualties are worse,” Hegseth said during an interview last week on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast to promote his new book.

“I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles — it hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

Lobbied Trump to pardon war criminals

In 2019, the former news anchor urged Trump to acquit US service members who had been accused of war crimes.

He first defended such servicemen on his show by showing their cases and interviewing their relatives following which he posted on social media that a pardon from Trump “would be amazing,” and added hashtags with the names of those accused to report mentioning his private lobbying of the then-president.

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Threw an axe at a person

Hegseth went viral and was later sued after he struck a U.S. Army master sergeant in the arm with an errant axe throw during a 2015 “Fox & Friends” segment.

Video of the incident shows the axe flying over a target and hitting Jeffrey Prosperie, a drummer in West Point’s Hellcats field band, who had been invited to the show for the 240th anniversary of the Army’s founding.

With inputs from AP