President-elect Donald Trump nominated Pete Hegseth, a former U.S. Army major and host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” to lead the Department of Defense.
His tattoos have come under scrutiny in recent days, including one of a Jerusalem Cross, which he said is nothing more than a religious symbol — even if other extremists have adopted it.
Another tattoo raised concerns among his fellow National Guard members.
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According to The Associated Press, a colleague serving as “the unit’s security manager and on an anti-terrorism team” sent an email to the unit’s leadership flagging “a different tattoo that’s been used by white supremacists.” There was a fear that Hegseth could be an “Insider Threat.”
The bicep tattoo reads “Deus Vult,” which is Latin for “God will it.” The tattoo along with the Jerusalem Cross is “linked to the First Crusade in the early 1000s, when it was supposedly a battle cry for Christian invaders,” reported the conservative New York Post.
It means “God mandated Crusaders’ violence,” writes religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies.
Hegseth’s tattoo is not just a Christian symbol, Taylor said.
“In recent years, some right-wing nationalist groups have adopted Crusader imagery, including depictions of Templar Knights and the Crusader slogan Deus vult, Latin for ‘God wills it,'” said Taylor.
The phrase is also used as the closing sentence of Hegseth’s book, “American Crusade.”
Hegseth has maintained they’re simply part of his religion.
Read the report here.