- Social media posts alleged that Pete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for defense secretary, wears white supremacist, Christian nationalist or Nazi tattoos.
- Hegseth has about 12 tattoos on his right arm and chest, all but one of which (the exception is an indistinct symbol that appears to represent the numeral "7") are clear references to his military service and patriotism, and to his Christian faith.
- Contrary to rumor, none of the tattoos is a swastika. There is no evidence that any of Hegseth's tattoos represent a sympathy for or commitment to white supremacist or Nazi views.
- Two of Hegseth's Christian-based tattoos use symbology that has become associated with — but doesn't necessarily indicate adherence to — Christian nationalist views. Historically, both tattoos have connections to the Crusades, a series of wars in which Christian armies sought to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim rule in the 11th-13th centuries.
On Nov. 12, 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and Fox News host, for secretary of defense. Following the announcement, as internet users began to research and share information 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 said that during President Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration, he had been removed from the event's security detail because of one of his tattoos. According to the Department of Defense, 12 National Guardsmen were removed from inauguration security as a precaution due to reports of "questionable behavior," including but not limited to extremism. If Hegseth is to be believed, he was one of those 12.
By examining Hegseth's social media accounts, Snopes was able to identify almost all of his tattoos, which could be classified into two different categories: tattoos representing Hegseth's military service and patriotism, and tattoos representing his Christian faith.
We should note we reached out to both Hegseth and Fox News for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
The Patriotic Tattoos
Hegseth's tattoos referencing his military service and patriotism did not have any direct connection to neo-Nazis, Christian nationalism or white suprematist ideology. This group of tattoos included:
- The words "We The People" from the U.S. Constitution
- The year 1775 in Roman numerals (MDCCLXXV)
- A stylized American flag with its bottom stripe replaced by an AR-15 assault rifle
- A ring of stars around his elbow (possibly 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 user petehegseth)
There was one tattoo Snopes couldn't find a good angle on in the photos available, but based on what is visible, it doesn't appear problematic, either: a red number "7" in a style one might find when playing a slot machine.
(Instagram user petehegseth)
The Christian Tattoos
Hegseth has four different tattoos referencing his Christian faith, and this is the group containing symbols many identified as problematic. None of these tattoos have direct connections to Nazi or white supremacist ideologies, though at least one has been linked to Christian nationalism.
First and simplest are the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P) in a circle on Hegseth's upper arm. Chi and rho are the first two letters in the Greek spelling of Jesus Christ's name, and the paired symbols have been used since Roman times to represent Christianity.
Next, Hegseth has a sword contained within a cross tattooed on the inside of his forearm. This is a reference to the Bible passage Matthew 10:34, which reads: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Along the blade of the sword in Hegseth's tattoo, Hebrew letters spell "Yeshua," or Jesus.
The two tattoos most frequently cited as problematic both connect to the Crusades, when European armies invaded the "Near East" with a goal of conquering Jerusalem from the Muslims and placing it under Catholic control. Christian nationalists and other far-right movements have long glorified the Crusades. In a 2023 paper about the history of one particular Crusade song, medieval historian and musician Kate Arnold wrote the following:
The crusades and medievalist tropes in general have a history of being appropriated in the promotion of right-wing, nationalist and racist agendas, from the beginnings of medieval studies and the parallel rise of 'Romantic nationalism' in the nineteenth century, through twentieth-century Fascist and Nazi constructions of the medieval past as a kind of ethnically 'pure' golden age, to modern-day white supremacists in the USA styling themselves 'alt-knights'.
On his right pectoral, Hegseth has a large symbol called the "Jerusalem Cross," which consists of one large Greek cross and four small Greek crosses, one in each quadrant. (It is not, as some online claimed, a swastika). The symbol has long been associated with the Crusades, based on sources dating back to the 1300s (the last Crusader Kingdom came to an end in 1291).
On his bicep, Hegseth has the words "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 Crusade to begin. During the Jan., 6. 2021, Capitol riots, at least one flag flown read "Deus Vult".
(Instagram user petehegseth)
This is not to say that any of these tattoos prove Hegseth is a Christian nationalist. However, the claim surfaced for a reason — Hegseth has at least one tattoo directly referencing the Crusades, an event that many Christian nationalists glorify. In Hegseth's 2020 book "American Crusade," he directly referenced the Crusades when discussing the difference between "peaceful Muslims" and "Islamist Muslims," according to the progressive research group Media Matters.
"Just like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the twelfth century," Hegseth wrote, "American Crusaders will need to muster the same courage against Islamists today."