Pete Hegseth in new controversy over baffling Arabic tattoo after battle textual content leaks
Pete Hegseth has multiple Christian and pro-American tattoos on his body and revealed his recent ‘kafir’ inking while performing jumping jacks while visiting Hawaii
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has raised eyebrows with a previously unknown tattoo. Mr Hegseth’s tattoo was revealed during a visit to the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in the US state of Hawaii on Wednesday.
An X/Twitter post from Mr Hegseth showed photos of him working out with soldiers – something he has been keen to do to show an apparent new toughness in the military. But eagle-eyed sleuths on social media noticed he had a tattoo of the Arabic word kafir – translated to mean “infidel” – inked on the inside of his right arm. The new tattoo has led to accusations of Islamophobia online.
Mr Hegseth, a former Fox News presenter and a Major in the Minnesota Army National Guard, has several tattoos on his body that demonstrate his strong Christian faith. Among his collection include the phrase Deus Vult, meaning God wills it in Latin, a Jerusalem Cross on his chest.
The tattoo sparked concern among some online. Nerdeen Kiswani, a pro-Palestine activist said: “Hegseth just got a kafir (كافر) tattoo under his Deus Vult tattoo – a Crusader slogan. This isn’t just a personal choice; it’s a clear symbol of Islamophobia from the man overseeing U.S. wars.”
Tam Hussein posted to X/Twitter: “The كافر/kafir tattoo in the Quran means disbeliever. To the Muslim world the tattoo will be seen as an open declaration of Hegseth’s enmity towards them.”
There were numerous others who defended Mr Hegseth having the tattoo with several stating it was a symbol of defiance against Islamic terrorists and extremists. Mr Hegseth has previously spoken out about his tattoos.
He told podcaster Shawn Ryan: “I was deemed an extremist because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington, D.C., and my orders were revoked to guard the Biden inauguration…a Jerusalem cross tattoo which is just a Christian symbol.”
The tattoo controversy will add unwanted questions for Mr Hegseth following a major blunder where war plans were discussed with senior US officials over the app Signal while a journalist was present. Mr Hegseth detailed the timings of attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen and has faced calls to resign over what has been widely perceived by critics to have been a major security breach.
US President Donald Trump has defended those in the group chat and has downplayed the seriousness of inadvertently adding The Atlantic magazine journalist Jeffrey Goldberg into it.
Mr Goldberg himself said in a BBC interview: “If Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, is texting me, telling me the attack was about to be launched on Yemen – telling me what kind of aircraft are going to be used, what kind of weapons are going to be used, and when the bombs are going to fall two hours after the text is received – that seems sensitive information, war-planning information to me.”
The release of these details is going to cause a crisis in the Oval Office as the president finds the authority he held over these officials slowly ebbing away, according to security and defence author Professor Anthony Glees.
He told The Mirror: “Things seem to be spiralling out of control for Trump, even as I am writing this, with what is becoming a massive loss of his authority as a result of the further leaked Signal texts today.
“What the new texts show, beyond any doubt at all, is Hegseth posted operational details on Signal, including the targets (the Houthis), information on weapons to be deployed (F-18s in two first waves and sea-based Tomahawk missiles as well as land-launched MQ-9 Reaper drones, from a base in the Middle East) and the times of the attack sequence (14:10 and 15:36).”
