Spouse: Jennifer Rauchet (his third wife), an executive producer at FOX News. The couple attend Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Tennessee, a Christian nationalist evangelical congregation founded by Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho. Wilson is co-author of Southern Slavery: As It Was, a 43-page pamphlet arguing that slavery was good for slaves. Hegseth, a Christian activist, sports several Christian tattoos, one with an AK-47. He champions Reformed Reconstructivism, a Christian doctrine that advocates the Bible to guide US law, and for male leadership over women. He is also a Christian Zionist.

P2025 links: Hegseth is a former president at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), funded by the Koch-run Americans for Prosperity from 2016-19.

Qualifications: A former National Guard member who served at Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq, Cuba, and Afghanistan, he is former executive director of Vets for Freedom and CVA. (He was criticized for poor fiscal management at both jobs, and resigned from CVA after repeat complaints of intoxication at work and sexual harassment.)  A Fox News host, Hegseth is also an author. He failed in a 2012 Senate bid.

Disqualifications: Hegseth has publicly called for the deaths of Muslims, is anti-LGBTQIA+, and blames trans soldiers and DEI policies for harming US military readiness. He believes women have no place in combat roles in the military. He pushed Trump to pardon military members accused of war crimes in 2019. A recent media story reveals he secretly paid a 2017 financial settlement to a woman who accused him of rape, which he denies.

Note: Hegseth has reportedly walked back his comments about female soldiers, after meeting with Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, a combat veteran who sits on the influential Armed Services committee. Her vote is viewed as critical for the embattled nominee. Notably, Ernst is a Christian Lutheran evangelical and ardent Christian Zionist, like Hegseth.