Image via U.S. Department of Defense / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Pete Hegseth's official portrait, January 2025.
Pete Hegseth walked into a Pentagon briefing room on Tuesday, November 10, and called the effort to impeach him "sabotage." It was his first press conference in six months, and it came one day after Rep. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against him. A first House vote was expected on Tuesday evening.
Hegseth is the man who runs the American military. He got there by a strange route: small-town Minnesota kid, Princeton, soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans' campaigner, then a decade as a Fox News host. In January 2025 he became secretary of defense, confirmed by the closest Senate vote for a cabinet pick in years. This is his story so far.
| Quick Facts | Pete Hegseth |
|---|---|
| Full name | Peter Brian Hegseth |
| Born | June 6, 1980, Minneapolis, Minnesota (age 46) |
| Raised | Forest Lake, Minnesota |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m), as reported |
| Education | Princeton University, BA in politics (2003); Harvard University, master's in public policy (2013) |
| Military service | Army National Guard, 2003–2021; Major; two Bronze Stars |
| Known for | Fox & Friends Weekend co-host (2017–2024); 29th U.S. secretary of defense |
| Current role | U.S. secretary of defense since January 25, 2025 |
| Wife | Jennifer Rauchet (married 2019) |
| Children | Four; stepfather to three more |
| Books | American Crusade, Modern Warriors, Battle for the American Mind, The War on Warriors |
| Parents | Brian Hegseth, a high school basketball coach; Penelope "Penny" Hegseth, a business coach |
| Party | Republican |
A Minnesota kid who joined the Guard
Hegseth was born in Minneapolis on June 6, 1980, the oldest of three boys. His family is of Norwegian descent. He grew up in Forest Lake, a town north of the Twin Cities, where his father coached high school basketball. At Forest Lake Area High School he was valedictorian of his class of 1999, and he played football and basketball. He set school records for three-point shooting.
He went to Princeton, where he studied politics and ran The Princeton Tory, the university's conservative student paper. Months before the September 11 attacks, he joined the Army ROTC program. He picked Princeton over a place at West Point, where he could have played basketball. He graduated in 2003 and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard.
Two tours and two Bronze Stars
Image via Sgt. Waine Haley, U.S. Army / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Hegseth with the mayor of Samarra, Iraq, in 2005.
After a short spell as an analyst at the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns, Hegseth went on active duty. He spent 11 months at Guantanamo Bay in 2004, leading a platoon that guarded detainees. Then he volunteered for Iraq. He served in Baghdad and Samarra with the 101st Airborne Division, working as a civil affairs officer with the city council. A rocket-propelled grenade once hit his vehicle and failed to explode. He came home with a Bronze Star.
He went back to war a second time in 2010, teaching counterinsurgency to Afghan forces at a training centre in Kabul. He was promoted to major in 2014. He served once more with the District of Columbia Army National Guard from 2019 to 2021, then left the reserves in January 2024. All told, he earned two Bronze Stars and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
From veterans' groups to a Senate race
Back home, Hegseth threw himself into veterans' politics. He ran Vets for Freedom, a group that backed the Iraq war, and later led Concerned Veterans for America. In 2012 he tried for higher office, running in the Republican race for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota. He lost to Kurt Bills at the party convention and dropped out. He finished his Harvard master's degree the next year, in 2013.
A decade on Fox News
Television changed everything for him. Fox News took him on as a contributor in June 2014. By 2016 he was hosting Fox & Friends Weekend, and in January 2017 he became a full co-host. For the next seven years he was on American TV screens every weekend, in the same cable-news world as Joe Scarborough, the former congressman who hosts MSNBC's Morning Joe. His views caught the eye of Donald Trump, who was a regular viewer. He also wrote books in that time, all four of which made the New York Times bestseller list.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2003 | Graduates from Princeton; commissioned in the Minnesota Army National Guard |
| 2004 | Serves 11 months at Guantanamo Bay |
| 2005–2006 | Serves in Iraq with the 101st Airborne; wins a Bronze Star |
| 2006–2012 | Leads Vets for Freedom |
| 2012 | Runs for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota; drops out after the party convention |
| 2013–2016 | President of Concerned Veterans for America; Harvard master's in 2013 |
| 2014 | Joins Fox News as a contributor |
| 2017–2024 | Co-hosts Fox & Friends Weekend |
| 2025 | Confirmed as secretary of defense; sworn in January 25 |
| 2026 | Leads the Pentagon through the Iran war; faces impeachment articles in November |
Running the Pentagon
Image via Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Hegseth (left) with Gen. Dan Caine at a Pentagon briefing on Operation Epic Fury, March 2026.
On November 12, 2024, President-elect Trump named Hegseth as his pick for secretary of defense. The choice shocked Washington. Hegseth had never run a large organisation, and the Pentagon employs about three million people. His confirmation hearing in January 2025 was rough. Senators asked him about a sexual assault allegation from 2017, which he denied, and about his drinking and his past statements on women in combat. He said he was "not a perfect person" and that "redemption is real."
The Senate confirmed him on January 24, 2025, by 51 votes to 50. Three Republicans voted against him, and Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. It was only the second time in American history that a vice president had decided a cabinet confirmation. He was sworn in the next day, the second-youngest secretary of defense ever.
His first year was busy and noisy. He ordered the Pentagon to cut diversity programmes, renamed Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, and pushed his "warrior ethos" message. He was one of several outsiders Trump brought into government, a group that also included Elon Musk, who ran the administration's efficiency drive in its early months. In March 2025 he was caught up in the Signal chat story, after the editor of The Atlantic was wrongly added to a group chat where Hegseth shared details of strikes in Yemen hours before they happened. Hegseth said no classified information was shared, and the Pentagon's inspector general opened an inquiry.
Then came the war. In February 2026 the United States went to war with Iran, in an operation called Epic Fury. Hegseth gave regular briefings with Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He declared victory after a ceasefire in April 2026, but the fighting went on, and the war grew unpopular as it hit the economy. The department he runs is now also styled the Department of War, so he is often called secretary of war.
The impeachment fight
That war is at the heart of the impeachment effort. On Monday, November 9, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the first day of the House session after the midterm elections. The articles accuse Hegseth of waging the Iran war without Congress approving it, breaking the War Powers Resolution, and other abuses. They also cover the operation to capture Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, the boat strikes in the Caribbean that critics call extrajudicial killings, and action taken against Sen. Mark Kelly over his speech.
Massie says the charges are about the law, not about how well Hegseth did the job. "There's no argument in these impeachment articles that he's ineffective," he said. "The argument here is that he's broken laws and he's violated the Constitution." Massie lost his primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger and leaves Congress in January.
Hegseth hit back on Tuesday. "This is not patriotism. This is sabotage," he said at the Pentagon, calling the effort a farce that would fail like past impeachment attempts against Trump. "I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow," he said of the Iran operations. Trump is defending him, and Speaker Mike Johnson opposes the effort, while House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries backs it. Impeachment is a charge, not a conviction. Even if the House voted to impeach, removing Hegseth would take two-thirds of the Senate, which is seen as unlikely.
His books
| Book | Year |
|---|---|
| American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free | 2020 |
| Modern Warriors: Real Stories from Real Heroes | 2020 |
| Battle for the American Mind (with David Goodwin) | 2022 |
| The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free | 2024 |
All four books reached the New York Times bestseller list.
Family life
Hegseth has been married three times. His first marriage, to Meredith Schwarz, lasted from 2004 to 2009. He married Samantha Deering in 2010, and they had three sons together: Gunner, Peter Boone and Rex. That marriage ended in 2017. In 2019 he married Jennifer Rauchet, a Fox News producer. They have a daughter, Gwendolyn, born in 2017, and Hegseth is stepfather to Rauchet's three children from her earlier marriage. He has spoken openly about his Christian faith and about turning his life around after his drinking and his affair, which he has admitted.
He stays close to his Minnesota roots. His father Brian coached high school basketball before retiring in 2019, and his mother Penny works as a business coach. His younger brother Phil works in podcasting and media, and has advised him at the Pentagon.
FAQs
How old is Pete Hegseth? He was born on June 6, 1980, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is 46 years old.
How tall is Pete Hegseth? He is listed at 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m).
Who is Pete Hegseth's wife? Jennifer Rauchet, a former Fox News producer. They married in August 2019.
What is Pete Hegseth's net worth? There is no confirmed public figure. His finances came up during his confirmation hearing, but no reliable net worth has been published, so we are not printing a number.
Why is Pete Hegseth facing impeachment? Rep. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment on November 9, 2026, accusing him of waging the Iran war without congressional approval and other abuses. Hegseth calls the effort a farce and says he would do it all again. The House was expected to vote first on a move to set the articles aside.
What did Pete Hegseth do before the Pentagon? He served in the Army National Guard in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, led two veterans' groups, and co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend from 2017 to 2024.
Read More: Joe Scarborough Biography - Age, Height, Weight, Wife & More
Post a Comment