Pete Hegseth has built a lucrative career as a right-wing television personality and has revealed what he believes is the secret flaw behind the US military’s stumbles in Iraq and Afghanistan: wokeness.

Now, as Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, the Princeton-educated anchor and Fox News military veteran is just one vote away from leading the largest, most powerful and probably most bureaucratic military in the world.

His journey from a childhood in a Midwestern suburb to the helm of the U.S. armed forces follows the twin threads of America’s military setbacks and the country’s subsequent lurch toward Trump’s vision of the U.S. as a nation weakened by the left.

In his 20s, he worked at the U.S. military detention center at Guantánamo Bay and then in Iraq, in both cases as a member of the Minnesota National Guard. In his early thirties, he was deployed to Afghanistan. And from his late 30s until this week, he became a dominant voice and then co-host on Fox News, Trump’s most-watched television channel.

At one point he had the word Jesus, spelled in Biblical Hebrew, tattooed on his forearm. Other tattoos include the Jerusalem Cross, an image closely associated with the Crusades, on his chest, an American flag with an M16 rifle replacing the bottom stripes, and the words “We The People.”

He has previously said his National Guard unit withdrew him from guarding Biden’s inauguration because of the tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross, an emblem associated with white nationalist groups.

In his broadcasts, Hegseth, 44, has outlined an alternative vision of the US military that aligns almost perfectly with Trump’s view of America. He has argued that a once-vaunted military force — citing the mid-1990s as a turning point — has become ineffective by trying to be more inclusive and, in one famous incident, by prosecuting its own soldiers for war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To give a glimpse of how he plans to reform the US military, his response to a podcaster last week indicates the direction ahead: an “ethos change” to eliminate “socially correct garbage.” row at a time of war in Ukraine, the prospect of all-out conflict between Israel and Iran, and a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the coming years.

“First of all, you have to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth told the “Shawn Ryan Show,” describing the possible ouster of Gen. CQ Brown as a “course correction.” ‘Every general, every admiral… . who was involved in or woke up to diversity, equity and inclusivity programs must go,” he said.

What he sees as a distinction between soldiers who fight with courage and officers who pressure the military with their so-called “woke agenda” took Hegseth to the margins of Trump’s first presidency, where he was reportedly considered for a job as manager. of Veterans Affairs.

That view of the military is reflected in the title of his best-selling book published earlier this year, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” in which he warns of a coming conflict in which “red bloody American men will have to save the “sweets” of the liberal elite.

“No wonder there is a massive recruiting crisis in our military today – especially among young white men,” he writes in the book. “Why would God-fearing, traditional, patriotic kids get excited about dodging accusations of racism and then deciding on pronouns before going on patrol with a ‘man’ who is more concerned about becoming a woman than being a warrior?”

During Trump’s first administration, Hegseth remained at Fox News, where he once appeared to injure a nearby band member by missing his target in ax throwing, the fast-growing macho sport, on live television.

Fox News was also where conservative American politicians and TV personalities spent Trump’s years out of power sharpening their criticism of the U.S. military’s efforts at diversity and inclusion under the first black Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin .

Austin became a lightning rod for right-wing criticism after ordering a review of “extremism” in the military after it was found that nearly two dozen of those charged with violence during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol had previously or currently had ties to the armed forces.

Hegseth’s appointment has shocked America’s European allies, who are already bracing for a possible U.S. turn to Ukraine – where Trump has made clear he plans to overhaul outgoing President Joe Biden’s strategy – and a significantly changed approach to NATO.

“I woke up this morning in Vienna to the news and thought: whoever the gods would destroy, they would first make crazy,” said a former senior Western military leader closely involved with NATO.

Based on his broadcasts, Hegseth’s views on the war in Ukraine are inconsistent. Four days after Russia’s massive invasion of Russia in February 2022, he said fellow conservatives and young people told him the war was “important, but it pales in comparison to the crime I see in my streets, to the wokeness I see in my culture see. , to the inflation I see in my wallet.” But soon after, he criticized Biden for not arming Ukraine quickly enough.

In last week’s podcast, he described the conflict as “Putin’s give-me-my-shit-back war,” recalling the Kremlin’s position that the Ukrainian nation was a temporary distraction from its historical place within Russia’s sphere of influence.

Hegseth summarized Putin’s position this way: “We used to have the former Soviet Union and we are quite proud of it. And Ukraine was part of it, and all these other countries, and I want my stuff back.”

At the same time, he blamed Biden for “being Awol” and giving Putin the opportunity to one day reclaim Soviet territory.

Hegseth did not respond to a request for comment.

The nomination has already sparked a backlash in the US, with people privately and on social media expressing surprise that Trump would appoint someone who many believe would have very little credibility to lead the Pentagon.

Former Trump administration officials who supported the president-elect’s other picks for top national security jobs have also expressed disdain, with one saying the choice was “crazy.”

How Hegseth’s view of the war will shape U.S. military policy is unclear, but an initial hurdle will be his “very limited military background and no government experience,” warned Gen. Lord Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British military.

“The US Joint Chiefs of Staff will have to do a lot of work to make their case to continue supporting Ukraine and NATO, but I think we can assume Hegseth will carry out Trump’s wishes with loyalty,” Dannatt added.

Others were less circumspect. “A total clown show,” says John Foreman, former British defense attache in Moscow. “The man seems interested in fighting culture wars within the Defense Department and purging enemies.”

But culture wars and the drive to purge enemies helped Trump win the presidency, and Hegseth has thrust himself into the newly elected president’s inner circle. In his book, he portrays himself as a renegade who chooses not to renew his security clearance because he no longer wants to be involved with the military, and then as an outsider on a crucial mission to save the force from awakening.

“My trust in this army has been irrevocably shattered,” he wrote. “The so-called elites running the military today are not just lowering standards and targeting the wrong enemy – they believe that power is evil, merit is unfair (and) white people are yesterday.”