In late January 2025, the Senate narrowly confirmed former Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth as the defense secretary of the United States.
Three Republicans, along with every Democrat and independent, voted against Hegseth, whom President Donald Trump nominated and then stood behind despite allegations of heavy drinking and sexual assault against women, all of which he has denied. He is often the target of rumors related to these reports. For example, Snopes has debunked a claim that police arrested Hegseth for drunkenly crashing a tank into the Pentagon, and we also confirmed he once published — but did not write — a column that said sex with unconscious women is not rape.
As Trump's defense secretary, Hegseth has come under fire for various reasons, including once saying that women should not be in combat roles and for his part in accidentally sharing what may have been classified military intelligence via a Signal group chat with the editor-in-chief of the political magazine The Atlantic.
Here are 12 rumors we have investigated about Hegseth:
