Pete Hegseth

Peter Brian Hegseth (born June 6, 1980) is an American television host and author.

Hegseth is an Army National Guard officer and former executive director of political advocacy groups Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.

The latter, a conservative advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers, advocates greater privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Hegseth was born on June 6, 1980, in Forest Lake, Minnesota.

He attended Forest Lake Area High School and received his Bachelor of Arts at Princeton University in 2003.

Following graduation from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst and was also commissioned as a reserve infantry officer into the U.S. Army National Guard.

In 2004 his unit was called to Guantánamo Bay, where he served as an infantry platoon leader with the Minnesota National Guard.

According to his LinkedIn page, Hegseth left the conservative think tank in 2007 to work at Vets For Freedom as executive director.

His role included responding to the Federal Election Commission as "treasurer" of the organization.

He returned to active duty in 2012 as a captain.

He was deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard and acted as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul.

Hegseth, a major, currently serves in the Individual Ready Reserve.

He has been awarded two Bronze Stars for his service overseas.

Upon return from Iraq, Hegseth worked briefly at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

He worked at Vets for Freedom until 2012.

The organization advocated a greater troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hegseth formed the political action committee MN PAC in 2012.

Hegseth was the executive director for Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers.

The group advocated greater privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Hegseth ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota in 2012.

He withdrew from the race after the May 2012 convention, before the Republican primary election in August, both events in which Kurt Bills won the nomination.

In 2013, he received a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

At Princeton, Hegseth was the publisher of The Princeton Tory, a conservative student-run publication.

He also played on the Princeton Tigers men's basketball team.

According to his LinkedIn page, he left the group in 2015.

Asked about it, Hegseth's lawyer said that Philip, a May 2015 university graduate, was qualified for the media relations job, and noted there is no prohibition against private entities hiring family members.

An APM Reports analysis found that while Hegseth ran the MN PAC political action committee, one third of its $15,000 in funds were spent on Christmas parties for families and friends.

Campaign finance laws in Minnesota do not prohibit such spending.

In 2016, he emerged as a strong supporter and ally of Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, and served as an occasional advisor to Trump throughout the latter's presidency.

He reportedly persuaded Trump to pardon three American soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes related to the shooting of non-combatants in Iraq.

Hegseth, who was a platoon leader at Guantanamo Bay during his military service, defended the treatment of inmates detained there.

While Hegseth was its chief executive, Concerned Veterans for America hired his brother Philip To work for the non-profit and paid him $108,000 according to tax records from 2016 and 2017.

During the 2016 Republican primaries, he initially backed Marco Rubio, then Ted Cruz, and ultimately Donald Trump.

He was considered to lead the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in the Trump administration, but in January 2017, David Shulkin was selected instead.

Hegseth has been active in conservative and Republican politics since his days as an undergraduate at Princeton University.

His unit was under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment 101st Airborne Division.

He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, where he held the position of infantry platoon leader and, later in Samarra, as civil–military operations officer.

During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.

Less than half of the PAC's resources was spent on candidates, and as of March 2018, the PAC had closed its account with the state board.