Hegseth downplays his bigotry to suck up to senators—and it's working

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to lead the Department of Defense, is now flip-flopping on bigoted positions he has held.

Politico reports that Hegseth told Republican senators on Thursday that he backs allowing gay people to serve in the military. This a stark change from the view he took in his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors,” where he claimed that the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy—which banned gay service members from serving openly—was a “gateway” to advancing a “Marxist” agenda.

In his meetings with senators, Hegseth also reportedly praised women serving in the armed forces. But in a November podcast appearance, Hegseth said, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

The shift in Hegseth’s rhetoric has come while he tries to win the votes of female Republican senators, most notably Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine. And it seems to be working, with Ernst signaling openness to voting to confirm him. 

But Hegseth’s comments undermine the bluster that brought him to Trump’s attention. As with many of his other Cabinet nominees, Trump came to know Hegseth from his frequent appearances on Fox News. In those appearances, Hegseth often wore his bigotry on his sleeve.

Hegseth’s flip-flops have accompanied a slew of negative stories being unearthed about him, increasing pressure on Republican senators, who could face blowback for backing the pick.

A recently released poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research underlines this. In the poll, fielded Dec. 5-9, only 2 in 10 Americans support Hegseth’s nomination, though 4 in 10 say they don’t know enough about him. However, Hegseth has support from roughly a third of Republicans, while 16% oppose his nomination.

Those anemic numbers follow the disclosures that Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault, described as abusive by his own mother, and has faced allegations of public drunkenness and mismanagement of funds at a conservative veterans’ charity.

Now, in addition to those damning charges, Hegseth appears unable to stand by his own words when it comes to currying favor with the powerful.