This anti-Hegseth lie isn't even skin deep

As the debate rages over Pete Hegseth's nomination to become President re-elect Donald J. Trump's Secretary of Defense, the former soldier and broadcaster's critics still claim that he is a closet white nationalist.

Hegseth's foes get jumpy over a tattoo on his chest. The Jerusalem Cross that Hegseth's jackets and ties cover is, indeed, a Christian symbol — just like every cross. This large cross surrounded by four smaller ones might be five times "too much" Christianity for some people.

Hegseth's "detractors have said the Jerusalem Cross is an indicator of extremism, White supremacist, and Christian nationalist sentiment," wrote FoxNews.com's Peter Pinedo. "Some have even mistaken it for the Nazi swastika."

Like every other rock that the Hegseth haters hurl at him, this one bounces right off.

As Hegseth explains in his manifesto for Pentagon reform, The War on Warriors, the Jerusalem Cross forced him out of uniform.

"As a member of the DC National Guard, our unit was tasked with supporting...the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden" in January 2021, Hegseth wrote.

But things suddenly changed.

"Just one day prior to reporting for duty — out of the blue — I received a call from my unit leadership that I was to 'stand down' and that I was 'not needed,'" Hegseth elaborated. Feeling betrayed, he soon became disenchanted with the Army. After 14 years of service, March 31, 2021, was his final day in camouflage.

While researching his book, Hegseth probed the genesis of his "stand down" orders. He pressed a unit leader for answers.

"You were not brought to the inauguration because...they dubbed you as a white nationalist and an extremist," the senior officer revealed. Two soldiers found a shirtless photo among Hegseth's social media. "And the tattoo was what they flagged you on."

"It's a Jerusalem Cross!" Hegseth recoiled. "Did they even google it?!"

The fantasies of Hegseth's enemies notwithstanding, this emblem is not the brainchild of Dr. Joseph Goebbels. "This was part of the coat of arms after the year 1203 and the 104-year reign of the Jerusalem Kingdom," Hegseth's book details. "I got it after I saw it on a church while walking the streets of Jerusalem."

"The laughable ignorance of so many on the subject of the Jerusalem Cross reminds one of how impoverished education is these days," Manhattan-based Father George Rutler told me. The retired Catholic priest and member of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre added: "A professor friend of mine was astonished when a freshman at Harvard College asked him if the term 'World War II' means that there was a First World War."

"Many Christians who visit Jerusalem get the cross tattooed on their bodies during their pilgrimage, including world leaders," the Washington Examiner's Timothy Nerozzi recalled. "Multiple male members of the British royal family have received Jerusalem cross tattoos while visiting the Holy Land, beginning with the future King Edward VII in 1862."

Anyone itching to see a Jerusalem Cross need not talk the raiment off of a duke at Windsor Castle. Among many places, it is built into a mosaic at Washington, D.C.'s Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America. It's also on their website.

The late President Jimmy Carter's casket at Washington's National Cathedral sat atop a wood-inlaid floor bearing none other than the Jerusalem Cross.

Far more conspicuous was the program for the 100-year-old chief executive's January 9 memorial service. Right on the cover, in black and white, was — you guessed it — the Jerusalem Cross.

So, either Pete Hegseth follows Jimmy Carter's example of devoted white supremacy, or this entire bogus controversy is not even skin deep.

Even a committed heathen like me, who cannot stand tattoos, can see just how fake this nonsense is.

The United States Senate should get on with it and send the overly inked, but otherwise visionary and highly qualified, Pete Hegseth to the Pentagon, so he can terminate the Biden Administration's War on Warriors.

© 2025 Deroy Murdock