Pete Hagseth, a U.S. Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host nominated by Donald Trump to head the U.S. Department of Defense, was labeled by a fellow soldier as a possible "domestic threat" because of a tattoo on his biceps that has been linked to white supremacist groups, the Associated Press reports, UNN writes.
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Gagset, who has downplayed the role of the military and veterans in the January 6, 2021 attack and opposed further Pentagon efforts to combat extremism in the ranks, said his D.C. National Guard unit removed him from guarding Joe Biden's January 2021 inauguration. According to him, he was unfairly labeled an extremist because of a cross tattoo on his chest.
"However, this week, his Guard colleague, who was the unit's security manager at the time and a member of the anti-terrorism team, shared with the Associated Press an email he sent to the unit's leadership noting another tattoo that read 'Deus Vult' used by white supremacists, concerned that it was a sign of an 'internal threat,'" the newspaper writes.
Retired Master Sgt. DeRico Gaither, who served as the physical security manager for the D.C. Army National Guard and was part of the terrorism protection team in January 2021, told the AP that he received an email from a former D.C. Guard member that included a screenshot of a social media post that included two photos showing several of Gagset's tattoos.
Gaither told the AP that he examined the tattoos - including one depicting the Jerusalem Cross and the context of the words "Deus Vult," Latin for "God wills it," on his bicep - and determined they had enough of a connection to extremist groups to pass the letter on to his commanders.
In an email addressed to then-Major General William Walker, who was the commander of the District of Columbia National Guard, Gaither expressed concern that the phrase was associated with white supremacists who invoke the idea of a white Christian medieval past.
"Major General Walker, sir, with the information provided, this falls under the insider threat line, and that is something we as members of the U.S. Army, the District of Columbia National Guard, and the Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection Team are committed to preventing," Gaither wrote.
According to Heidi Beirich of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, some of Ghegseth's tattoos are related to expressions of religious faith, but they have also been adopted by some far-right groups and violent extremists. Their meaning depends on the context, she said.
A total of 12 members of the National Guard were ordered to stay home, former Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters at a briefing the day before Biden's inauguration. It is unclear whether Gagset was among the 12 people mentioned by Hoffman at the time.
More than 480 people with military backgrounds have been charged with ideologically motivated extremist crimes in the country from 2017 to 2023, including more than 230 arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 uprising, according to data collected and analyzed by the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Counterterrorism (START), the AP reported in an investigation published last month.