The Fox News host, whom President-elect Donald Trump just announced will be nominated for secretary of defense, has not been allowed to work security at President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, allegedly because of a tattoo that superiors the military believed it could have been an extremist symbol. .

Conformable spotsHegsethhost of “Fox & Friends Weekend” and potential future secretary of defense, the tattoo was a large Jerusalem cross on his chest. The Jerusalem Cross appeared with the Christian Crusades almost a millennium ago. Nowadays, it can be a simple indicator of Christian beliefs – or in some situations, a symbol for the conquest and domination of Muslims or non-white minorities.

“I was considered an extremist because of a tattoo – by my National Guard unit in Washington, DC,” Hegseth said on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast this summer. “And my orders were revoked to guard Biden’s inauguration. Jerusalem cross tattoo, it’s just a Christian symbol… (that) turned me off.”

In 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard. He served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, eventually reaching the rank of major.

But Hegseth is a surprising choice to lead the most massive military bureaucracy in human history for a few reasons, including statement that women should not serve in combat roles; his successfullobby during the first Trump administration for pardons for convict and alleged war criminals; his description of the “two-front war” – one against “radical Islamist ideology” and the other against “internal enemies” namely “Left”; his opposition to alleged “infection” of left-wing policies in the military; and his statementa few years ago that “The Iraq War is an example of what America did right when we did it right.”

In his 2020 book, “The American Crusade: Our Struggle to Stay Free,” Hegseth wrote, “Like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the 12th century, the American crusaders will have to muster the same courage against today’s Islamists”. the liberal watchdog group Media Matters scored on Tuesday. In the same book, he echoed the “Great Replacement” white nationalist conspiracy theory, saying that “the American left insists on pursuing the same policies that led to the cultural invasion of Europe” by “Islamists.”

“Muhammad is now a top ten boy name in America – what will it be in 2030?” wrote Hegseth.

Regarding Biden’s inauguration, Hegseth told Ryan that while he was working on his latest book, he was contacted by someone in his unit “who could confirm (the story) with 99.9 percent certainty.” He said he was told that “someone inside the DC Guard checked your social media, found a tattoo, used it as an excuse to call you a white nationalist, an extremist, and you were specifically, by name, orders revoked to guard the inauguration. because you were considered a potential threat.”

“I joined the army because I wanted to serve my country. Extremism attacked us on 9/11 and we went to war. Hegsethhe wrote in his 2024 book, The War on the Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the People Who Keep Us Free, adding: “And in 2021, I was deemed an ‘extremist’ by the same military.”

Hegseth has sharp to the incident as an example of “political” and “partisan” decision-making. He said his tattoo was a “Christian tattoo” and not an “extremist” symbol.

“Eventually, members of my leadership unit thought I was an extremist or a white nationalist because of a tattoo that I have, which is a religious tattoo,” he said. said separately in a Fox News interview. “It is a cross from Jerusalem. Everyone can search, but it was used as a premise to revoke my orders to guard the inauguration.”

Hegseth also has a tattoo that reads “Deus vult” or “God Wills”, which he confirmed is a reference to the Crusades.

“I have on my bicep the Deus Vult — God willing — which was the cry of the Crusaders,” he said sports news website The Big Lead in 2020.

Images of the Jerusalem cross, as well as expressions such as “Deus vult” have become more common in recent years as stand-ins for signifiers of right-wing and sometimes far-right beliefs. For example, Donald Trump Jr. once fashioned an assault riflecustomized with the Jerusalem cross and a picture of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton behind bars. In 2020, a Delaware man bombed a Planned Parenthood facility after writing “Deus vult” on the outside of the building. In 2023, a gunman who committed a mass shooting at a mall in the Dallas area they had both an “Vulture Deus” and a swastika tattooas well as Nazi SS screws and other markers of extreme beliefs.

Jim LaPorta, an investigative journalist who covers the military, confirmed some aspects of Hegseth’s inauguration story years ago. Days after Biden’s inauguration, LaPorta and others reported in The Associated Press that 12 members of the National Guard were excluded from the inaugural security plan “after review by the FBI.” LaPorta reported, “Two other U.S. officials told The Associated Press that all 12 were found to have ties to right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online.” The story added that the individuals were removed due to “security liabilities.”

Although two of the 12 service members affected were sent home for “inappropriate comments or texts related to the inauguration,” according to the AP article, the other 10 were for “other potential issues that may involve prior criminal behavior or other activities, but they were not directly related to the inaugural event.”

“Several years ago, we had a first tip that the Pentagon later confirmed that twelve members of the US National Guard were excluded from securing the investiture of President-elect Joe Biden, after vetting,” LaPorta wrote last week on X, formerly Twitter. “Apparently one of them was @PeteHegseth”

The Pentagon said at the time that it was not asking follow-up questions about anyone flagged by law enforcement — it was just removing them from the security plan that day.

“If our law enforcement partners flag a person based on their determination that they see something and they pass it on to us, we don’t even ask what the flag is, we just remove it,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman. said at the time.

Spokesmen for the Minnesota Army National Guard, along with Hegseth deployed overseas, did not return HuffPost’s requests for comment, nor did representatives of the District of Columbia Army National Guard, which provided security for the inauguration. Trump’s transition team and a speakers’ bureau representing Hegseth also did not return requests for comment. A Pentagon spokesman referred HuffPost to military public affairs, which did not respond.

Hegseth may have been the victim of too much scrutiny before Biden’s inauguration. However, context is crucial.

Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, images of the Crusades have become more prevalent among the far right.

Like Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor noticed in 2016, “‘Deus Vult’ – or ‘God wills’ or ‘it is God’s will’ – became a sort of far-right code word, a hashtag proliferated around alt-right social media and scribbled graffiti in public institutions.”

NPR reported in 2017 to the fury of historians over the appropriation of crusader crosses and other medieval imagery by white nationalists. Crusader images was seen at the August 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as to the January 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol.

“Deus vult” was also used alongside swastikas and other racist imagery by vandals of mosques. Conformable KnowYourMeme.coma website that catalogs popular Internet usage, “The phrase can be seen as the Christian equivalent” of Allahu akbar, or God is great.

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