Pete Hegseth
Secretary of Defense
14 findings
What the labels mean
- ConvictedA criminal jury found them guilty.
- Found liableA civil jury ruled against them.
- Court ruledA judge ruled against them or their policy.
- Watchdog foundAn inspector general, Congress's auditors at the GAO or UN investigators.
- AdmittedThey acknowledged it, or their own government's records and court filings show it.
- On recordSomething they said or did in public.
- ReportedNews reporting they deny or haven't confirmed.
- AllegedAccusations in lawsuits, complaints or from sources. Unproven.
Verdicts and rulings 2
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Court ruled
Reporters turned in their Pentagon badges rather than sign his new press rules. A judge later ruled against the rules.
Dozens of them did, including Fox’s. The ruling came in a case brought by the New York Times.
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Court ruled
He censured Sen. Mark Kelly and moved to cut his retirement rank over a video telling troops they can refuse illegal orders. A judge blocked it.
Judge Richard Leon ruled the Pentagon violated Kelly’s First Amendment rights and “threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” and barred the punishment while the case goes on. A grand jury had already declined to indict the lawmakers in the video. Hegseth posted “Sedition is sedition, ‘Captain,’” and appealed; an appeals panel heard arguments in May and appeared skeptical of his side.
Watchdog findings 1
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Watchdog found
He texted strike timings on Signal before the planes hit. The Pentagon’s watchdog says it could have endangered American troops.
He posted launch times for the Yemen strikes in a chat that included a journalist. The inspector general found the information could have imperiled American troops had it been intercepted, and that using his personal phone for official business broke regulations. He says nothing classified was shared.
Admitted or on record 4
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On record
Speaking to hundreds of troops at Quantico, he listed who doesn’t belong in the military: “No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.”
“Trannies” is a slur for transgender people, whom he has barred from serving. Six weeks earlier, at a military fundraiser at the Iowa State Fair, he said, “At the Department of War, we do training, not trannies.” At Quantico he also went after “anti-American losers in our media” and called their reporting on the Iran war “treason, actually.” No response from him or the Pentagon to criticism of the slur was reported.
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Admitted
He paid $50,000 to a woman who told police he sexually assaulted her.
She reported it to Monterey police in 2017. Prosecutors declined to charge him, and he says it was consensual. He disclosed the payment, made under a nondisclosure agreement, to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
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On record
He told senators the “biggest adversary” in the Iran war was “congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”
“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said at a Senate hearing, after saying the same to the House the day before.
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On record
“No quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” Declaring “no quarter,” which means refusing to let enemies surrender, is banned under the laws of war.
Analysts said the remark itself could violate the Hague Convention. Asked in Congress if he stood by it, he said, “The Department of War fights to win.”
Reported and alleged 7
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Reported
He had a baby with a Fox News producer while he was married to someone else.
His daughter with producer Jennifer Rauchet was born in 2017. His second wife, Samantha, filed for divorce about a month later. He later married Rauchet and has never disputed any of it.
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Reported
His own mother: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego.”
She wrote it to him in a 2018 email that the New York Times published. She later said she wrote it in anger, apologized right away, and said it “has never been true.”
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Alleged
Coworkers and family say he drank on the job and at home.
Ten current and former Fox employees told NBC News they worried about his drinking; two said that more than a dozen times they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air. A whistleblower complaint at a veterans’ group he ran said he was drunk at work events to the point of being carried out. His former sister-in-law’s sworn affidavit described episodes of heavy drinking, and CNN, citing one source, reported his ex-wife told the FBI, “He drinks more often than he doesn’t.” He says he never had a drinking problem and promised senators “there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips” in office.
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Reported
Two men survived a US strike on an alleged drug boat, and a second strike killed them. The Washington Post reported his order was to “kill everybody.”
The Washington Post reported that Hegseth gave a spoken order to “kill everybody.” He calls that “patently ridiculous.” The admiral in charge told lawmakers Hegseth’s order was to kill all 11 people aboard, who were on a target list, but that he got no order to kill survivors. Hegseth said he watched the first strike and then “moved on to my next meeting.” As of May 2026, AP counted at least 199 people killed in the boat-strike campaign.
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Reported
An initial Pentagon assessment found US forces likely hit a girls’ school in Iran. Reuters reported more than 150 dead, most of them children.
Reuters reported the initial assessment, citing Pentagon officials. Hegseth: “We, of course, never target civilian targets, but we’re taking a look.”
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Reported
The Financial Times reported his broker tried to buy into a defense-stock fund weeks before the Iran war.
The investment didn’t go through. ABC News, which reported on the FT story, hasn’t confirmed it, and his latest disclosure shows no major defense holdings. The Pentagon called it “entirely false and fabricated.” Democratic senators asked whether he shared information about pending military action with his broker.
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Reported
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll quit after 18 months of repeated clashes with him, NPR reported.
NPR reported the friction was over Hegseth firing top Army generals and blocking promotions of Black and female officers whom Driscoll supported. The White House gave no reason for the departure.