Why is Pete Hegseth’s tattoo stirring up so much drama?

President-elect Donald Trump has been hard at work tapping every controversial yes-man in his orbit as a potential Cabinet member. The grab-bag of sycophants includes a laundry list of unqualified nominees from dog killers to anti-vaxers, and while many of his nominations have been controversial, Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth takes the cake.

The television talking head received the nomination for Secretary of Defense just over a week ago, and the announcement has been met with a resounding chorus of boos from anyone who knows the difference between a General and a Major. Of course, Hegseth’s lackluster qualifications weren’t enough to preclude him from the position in Trump’s mind, but opponents are calling for Trump to reconsider now that Hegseth’s concerning tattoos have surfaced.  

It’s not the first time his tattoos have raised the alarm. Hegseth was pulled from a unit set to guard Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration after being identified by a fellow officer as a potential threat due to a cross tattoo on his chest. Twelve National Guard members were pulled from the guard roster before the event. It’s unclear whether this included Hegseth or was in addition to the major.

Hegseth says the tattoo is a Jerusalem cross and claims it is “just a Christian symbol.” The Jerusalem cross dates back to the early 1100s and has many modern-day applications. It’s the national flag of Georgia and is even used in electromagnetic applications in frequency-selective surfacing. But we are only the sum of our parts, and of course, Hegseth has multiple decorative parts that point to a questionable relationship with far-right terrorism.

Hegseth also has the Christian motto, “Deus Vult” inscribed on one bicep. The Latin phrase served as a battle cry for Christians during the crusade and translates to “God wills it.” The call to action persists today, though it’s been adopted by Christian nationalists, the alt-right, and white supremacy groups. In a bizarre sort of Knights Templar cosplay, the extremist groups widely adopted the slogan online, sharing crusader memes alongside the phrase, “I’ll see your jihad and raise you one crusade.”

It’s no secret that “Deus Vult” has become a rallying cry for the alt-right. It was repeatedly used by the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooter, was tattooed on the body of the 2023 Allen, Texas outlet mall shooting perpetrator, and surfaced multiple times during the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia neo-Nazi march. It’s been widely adopted by Christian nationalist groups across Europe as well, with groups believing that “the time period is an ideal of a white Europe.”

Hegseth and his supporters have determinedly asserted that concerns over his tattoos are “anti-Christian bigotry.” The 44-year-old Fox News presenter took to X to proclaim that “this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots” will “stop on DAY ONE” of Trump’s administration. It’s impossible to deny that the images have religious symbolism, but their meaning must be taken with a grain of salt. Symbolism depends on context, and when paired with Hegseth’s frustrating assessment that extremism in the military doesn’t need to be addressed, it becomes concerning. He feels that the Pentagon has overreacted to the threat of extremism in the ranks, and asserts that the problem is “fake” and “manufactured” in his book The War on Warriors.

Hegseth has incorrectly claimed that only “a few” active-duty soldiers and reservists participated in the January 6 insurrection, despite 80 military members facing charges. Of the 14 people convicted of seditious conspiracy, eight were former military.  He’s been an active lobbyist for securing military pardons. While Trump was in office, the broadcaster secured three pardons for disgraced military members, including one for Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL caught posing with a dead Islamic State captive in Iraq.

Hegseth’s tattoos aren’t inherently villainizing, but when combined with his personal views and ideologies, their meaning becomes more opaque. He refuses to address or even acknowledge a growing extremism problem, but he’s more than willing to revoke female service members recently gained right to combat, or enthusiastically secure pardons for war criminals. His tattoos were already deemed concerning enough by colleagues and his superiors to warrant his removal from the 2021 inauguration. As one Navy Intelligence officer told the Associated Press it’s “even more concerning now that a person who chose to bear those symbols is being nominated to lead the most powerful, nuclear military in the world.”