From late 2024 onward, a claim circulated online that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said women should not serve in military combat roles.
Shortly after President Donald Trump nominated him for the cabinet position in November 2024, an X user shared a 22-second clip of an interview featuring Hegseth (archived).
In the footage, the former Fox News host — who was confirmed as defense secretary on Jan. 25, 2025, following his widely reported Senate confirmation hearing — allegedly said:
I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. We've all served with women, and they're great. It just, our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where, traditionally — not traditionally, over human history — men in those positions are more capable.
Journalists and Reddit users (archived) have discussed his comments, while conservative commentator Ben Shapiro also reposted the 22-second clip and voiced his approval of Hegseth by saying: "Stop, stop, I'm already supporting him."
(Ben Shapiro)
The widely shared video originated from an episode of the "Shawn Ryan Show" podcast. Later in that episode, Hegseth said his concern was that military standards were "getting lower" to facilitate the acceptance of female soldiers. Below, we dig further into his historical comments on the subject of women in combat roles.
Snopes reached out to the defense secretary for comment on his previous remarks and we will update this story if we receive a response.
Hegseth's Comments on 'Shawn Ryan Show'
During Hegseth's appearance on the podcast — published on Nov. 7, 2024, before his nomination and confirmation — the U.S. Army veteran agreed with host Ryan's assertion that he did not like women serving in combat.
In fact, at the 56:53 mark, the former Fox News host said about a passage in his book "The War on Warriors": "I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles."
Hegseth also speculated that "making the case" for scaling back women in combat would result in "demagoguery" from officials in Washington, D.C.
However, earlier in the episode, Hegseth told Ryan:
I'm OK with the idea that you maintain the standards where they are for everybody, and if there's some hard-charging female that meets that standard, great, cool. Join the infantry battalion. But that is not what's happened. What has happened is that the standards have lowered.
He also put forward a "disclaimer":
We've all served with women and they're great. It just, our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where, traditionally — not traditionally, over human history — men in those positions are more capable.
The U.S. Army veteran later thanked Ryan for the chance to "clarify" his view about women in combat roles, saying he was referring to jobs for which "strength is the differentiator," adding: "Give me a female pilot all day long. I've got no issues with that."
Hegseth's Confirmation Hearing in Senate
After social media
For example, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts referenced Hegseth being questioned on the subject on Fox News in 2013. In that interview, he said:
In many scenarios it wouldn't be wrong … If they're not physically capable of doing that which a man would do, if you've got a wounded soldier or marine on the battlefield who needs to be dragged off, who needs to be medevaced, who needs to be pulled — can I count on that female soldier to do the same thing? If we were to look at women in combat we would have to make sure that standards are not eroded.
Warren then referenced his appearance on "
Women and men are different. Women shouldn't be in combat at all. Not at all. They're life givers, not life takers. I know a lot of wonderful soldiers, female soldiers who I've served with, who are great. But they shouldn't be in my infantry battalion, not once. They could be medics or helicopter pilots or whatever, but they create all sorts of variables and complications that have nothing to do with being anti-woman and everything to do with having the most effective military you can.
Warren also recalled lines from "
(The War on Warriors, p. 66)
Later in the chapter, Hegseth claims that military standards have been lowered to accommodate women, writing:
(The War on Warriors, p. 66)
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire also questioned his comments on women in combat roles, asking if the two women on the committee he faced who had served in the military had made it "less effective and less capable."
He responded that those women had made "indispensable" contributions on the battlefield and said he sought to "clarify" his position, repeating that his concerns were about the alleged lowering of standards. He told the committee:
When I'm talking about that issue, it's not about the capabilities of men and women; it's about standards, standards that we unfortunately over time have seen eroded in certain duty positions, in certain schools, certain places, which affects readiness. Which is what I care about the most: readiness on the battlefield.
Senators at Hegseth's confirmation hearing chewed over his previous comments and suggested his opinions had only softened since his nomination. Shaheen accused Hegseth of an "eleventh-hour conversion" on his views on women in combat roles. She said Hegseth had told reporters after his nomination that he supported "all women serving in our military today, who do a fantastic job across the globe, including combat." She then asked: "Which is it?"
However, Republican senators sought to clarify that Hegseth's position was not to block women from combat roles and that he thought women did not belong in combat only if they did not meet certain physical standards.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas branded the conversation on "women in combat" a "misnomer." He asked if Hegseth knew if President Donald Trump intended to "rescind or alter" 2013 guidance from former Democratic defense secretary Leon Panetta to allow women into ground combat roles. Hegseth responded:
He [Trump] has not indicated to me that he has plans to change whether or not women would have access to these roles. However, I would point out, ensuring that standards are equal and high is of importance to him and great importance to me ... In any place where those things have been eroded, or in courses, criteria have been changed in order to meet quotas — racial quotas or gender quotas — that is putting a focus on something other than readiness, standards, meritocracy and lethality. So, that's the kind of review I'm talking about, not whether women have access to ground combat roles.
Cotton also stated that he assumed, based on Hegseth's testimony, the nominee would agree with an argument voiced in a female infantry officer's letter, which was read to the committee, that the "intent" of gender-neutral testing was not to ensure that women and men would have an "equal likelihood" of meeting the required standards. Hegseth affirmed this.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa similarly said she hoped Hegseth would "continue to stress that every man and woman" has equal opportunities as long as they meet the same standards. She said:
Let's make it very clear for everyone here today, as secretary of defense, will you support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat roles?
Hegseth responded he would "given the standards remain high." He stated that it would be the "privilege of a lifetime" to be the secretary of defense for "all men and women in uniform."