WASHINGTON: Former infantryman and Fox News personality Pete Hegseth was sworn in as US defense secretary Saturday, having narrowly won Senate confirmation despite allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and concerns over inexperience.
Pledging to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon, Hegseth in brief remarks thanked President Donald Trump for selecting him and Vice President JD Vance for his tie-breaking vote in the Senate that allowed his nomination to pass.
Vance’s vote Friday evening was only the second time in history a vice president had to intervene to save a cabinet nominee and came after three Republicans — including former leader Mitch McConnell — cast ballots against Hegseth.
The razor-edge result underscored concerns about Hegseth, who takes over the Pentagon with war raging in Ukraine, the Middle East volatile despite ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, and as Trump expands the military’s role in security on the US-Mexico border.
The 44-year-old is a former Army National Guard officer and Bronze Star recipient with previous deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Until recently, he worked as a co-host for Fox News — one of Trump’s favored television channels.
Hegseth has a combative media personality, fierce loyalty and telegenic looks — common hallmarks in Trump’s entourage.
Supporters say Hegseth’s deployments give him the insight to run the Defense Department better than more experienced officials who would normally be considered for the job.
Speaking Saturday after his swearing in, Hegseth said he was thinking of “the guys that I served with on the battlefield, the men and women who I locked shields with and put my life on the line with.”
“We’re going to think about those warriors with every single decision that we make,” he said.
In confirming him, Republicans brushed aside his lack of experience leading an organization anywhere near the size of the Defense Department — the country’s largest employer with some three million personnel.
They also approved Hegseth despite allegations of financial mismanagement at veterans’ nonprofits where he previously worked, reports of excessive drinking, and allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in California.
Trump has stood by him, telling reporters on Friday that he’s “a very, very good man.”
Asked during his confirmation hearing last week about criticism he has faced, Hegseth said there was a “coordinated smear campaign” against him, and that he is “not a perfect person, but redemption is real.”
The thrice-married father of seven has frequently proclaimed his Christian faith, and began his remarks Saturday by saying “All praise and glory to God, his will be done.”
He credited his successful nomination to “Jesus and Jenny” — his wife.
Hegseth sworn in as US defense secretary
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Hegseth sworn in as US defense secretary
- Hegseth pledges to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon
- Former Fox News personality narrowly won Senate confirmation amid concerns over inexperience
Afghan man goes on trial over deadly Munich car-ramming
- The suspect, partially identified as Farhad N., 25, remained silent and did not offer a statement at the opening of the trial
- He faces two charges of murder and 44 of attempted murder
MUNICH: An Afghan man went on trial in Germany on Friday accused of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich last year, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring dozens.
The suspect, partially identified as Farhad N., 25, remained silent and did not offer a statement at the opening of the trial, sitting in the dock wearing a green fur-lined hooded jacket.
He faces two charges of murder and 44 of attempted murder, with prosecutors saying he acted out of a “religious motivation” and expected to die in the attack.
The vehicle rampage in February 2025 was one of several deadly attacks linked to migrants which inflamed a heated debate on immigration ahead of a general election that month.
Farhad N. is accused of deliberately steering his car into a 1,400-strong trade union street rally in Munich on February 13.
The vehicle came to a halt after 23 meters (75 feet) “because its front wheels lost contact with the ground due to people lying in front of and underneath the car,” according to the charge sheet.
A 37-year-old woman and her young daughter were both hurled through the air for 10 meters and sustained severe head injuries, of which they died several days later.
Prosecutors have said Kabul-born Farhad N. “committed the act out of excessive religious motivation,” and that he had uttered the words “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is the greatest,” after the car rampage.
“He believed he was obliged to attack and kill randomly selected people in Germany in response to the suffering of Muslims in Islamic countries,” they said when he was charged in August.
However, he is not believed to have been part of any Islamist militant movement such as the Daesh group.
Farhad N. was examined by a psychiatrist after exhibiting “certain unusual behaviors” during pretrial detention, including a tic in which he sometimes twitches his head, a court spokesman said on Friday.
The preliminary psychiatric report concluded that he is criminally responsible, but the presiding judge has said that the issue could be considered during the proceedings, according to the spokesman.
The trial is scheduled to run for 38 days until the end of June.
- Spate of attacks -
Farhad N. arrived in Germany in 2016 as an unaccompanied teenager, having traveled overland at the height of the mass migrant influx to Europe.
His asylum request was rejected but he was spared deportation, found work with a series of jobs and was able to remain in the country.
Police said Farhad N. worked in security and was heavily engaged in fitness training and bodybuilding.
The Munich attack came a month after another Afghan man had carried out a knife attack on a kindergarten group that killed two people, including a two-year-old boy, in the city of Aschaffenburg.
The perpetrator was later confined to a psychiatric facility after judges found he had acted during an acute psychotic episode.
In December 2024, six people were killed and hundreds wounded when a car plowed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. A Saudi man was arrested and is currently on trial.
Several Syrian nationals were also arrested over attacks or plots at around the same time, including a stabbing spree that killed three people at a street festival in the city of Solingen.
Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-2016 — an influx that has proved deeply divisive and helped fuel the rise of the far-right AfD.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who took power last May, has vowed to crack down on criminal migrants and has ramped up deportations of convicts to Afghanistan.
Germany in December also deported a man to Syria for the first time since that country’s civil war broke out in 2011.
