Jennifer and Pete Hegseth in Poland on Valentine’s Day. Photo: Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth isn’t just accidentally group chatting with a magazine editor about upcoming airstrikes, he’s bringing his family members to work, too. The scandal-plagued self-proclaimed “war fighter” has brought his wife, former Fox & Friends producer Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth, to at least two meetings with foreign military counterparts during which sensitive information was discussed, according to the Wall Street Journal. He’s also keeping his brother close. The Journal and Associated Press report that Phil Hegseth, Pete’s younger brother, has been hired for a key role in the Pentagon. And while making politics an officially family affair is hardly a novel concept in Trump administrations, it’s not common for people at the Pentagon.
Per the Journal’s sources, Hegseth brought his wife to high level meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels (where allied defense officials discussed the war in Ukraine) and at the Pentagon (with the U.K.’s two top defense officials). The Journal emphasizes how weird this was:
A secretary can invite anyone to meetings with visiting counterparts, but attendee lists are usually carefully limited to those who need to be there and attendees are typically expected to possess security clearances given the delicate nature of the discussions, according to defense officials and people familiar with the meeting. There is often security near the meeting space to keep away uninvited attendees.
[Jennifer Hegseth] isn’t a Defense Department employee, defense officials said. It isn’t uncommon for spouses of senior officials to possess low-level security clearances, but a Pentagon spokesperson declined to say whether Jennifer has one. Jennifer didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Her presence at the meetings did not go unnoticed by foreign defense officials, although some apparently had no idea who she was.
Hegseth’s little brother has been tagging along, too, but in a more official capacity. Former podcast producer Phil Hegseth has joined the Pentagon as “senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department,” the AP reports. In that role, he has joined his older brother for a Pentagon meeting with UFC champion Conor McGregor as well as on trips to Guantanamo Bay and Asia. A Defense Department spokesperson told the AP that Phil is “one of a number of talented DHS liaisons to DOD” and that he’s currently “conducting touch points with U.S. Coast Guard officials on the Secretary’s Indo-Pacific trip.”
It’s also not the first time they’ve worked together, per the AP:
Based on Phil Hegseth’s publicly available resume, his past experience includes founding his own podcast production company, Embassy and Third, and working on social media and podcasts at The Hudson Institute. It’s not the first time Phil Hegseth has worked alongside his older brother. When Pete Hegseth was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit that fell into financial difficulty during his time there, he paid his brother $108,000 to do media relations for the organization, according to federal tax records.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Phil Hegseth’s job title and said this “interagency mission is part of Mr. Hegseth’s preview,” presumably meaning “purview.”
No, it’s not normal for defense secretary’s brothers to get senior level Pentagon gigs. It’s also against federal law for a government official to hire, promote, or recommend their relatives for a job underneath them, though it’s possible the Hegseth brothers could avoid breaking that law if Phil is only considered a DHS employee. Pete Hegseth is also currently overseeing an effort to fire as many as 76,000 members of the Pentagon’s civilian workforce (who are all other people’s family members).
The reports about Hegseth’s wife and brother have come to light amid a particularly damaging week for the defense secretary, whose handling of military secrets is now under widespread scrutiny in the aftermath of the Signal group chat debacle. Pictures have also emerged of an Islamophobic tattoo Hegseth got on his arm, though it seems highly unlikely that will matter to anyone in this White House. And Pentagon officials also told CNN this week that Hegseth, as Defense Secretary, is indeed coming across as a superficial former television personality who is out of his depth:
“He’s a TV personality,” one of the sources said. “[A general officer] makes a recommendation, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, go do it.’ [Former Defense Secretary] Lloyd Austin would never be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, go do it.’ He’d be like, ‘We’ll take it under consideration.’”
Several DoD officials told CNN that Hegseth seems more preoccupied with appearances than with substance—wanting to appear more “lethal” than his predecessor and pulling resources from elsewhere in DoD to achieve that image.
Maybe it will all end with the launch of the Hegseth family’s new reality show.
This post has been updated.
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