After graduating from Princeton University , Hegseth began his career working as an analyst for Bear Stearns. From to and again from to , he served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard , attaining the rank of Major. He received the Bronze Star while serving in the special operations forces during a combat deployment to Iraq in Following his military service, Hegseth became an active figure in conservative and Republican politics and was the executive director of Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.
In , Hegseth emerged as a supporter of Donald Trump 's presidential candidacy, and he served as an occasional advisor to Trump throughout the latter's first term as president. Following Hegseth's encouragement, Trump pardoned three soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes in Hegseth was considered to lead the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration , but David Shulkin was tapped instead.
After Trump announced his intention to nominate Hegseth as defense secretary, numerous reports surfaced about alleged sexual misconduct and public drunkenness which threatened his confirmation; during his nomination hearing, Hegseth denied these claims. Hegseth holds strongly conservative views , and has been described [ by whom? Upon the re-election of Donald Trump in , Hegseth was nominated to serve as secretary of defense in Trump's second administration.
He is the second-youngest person to hold this position, after Donald Rumsfeld. He was sworn in on January Hegseth was born on June 6, , [ 4 ] in Minneapolis , Minnesota, the son of Brian, a basketball coach, and Penny Hegseth. Hegseth went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts in politics at Princeton University in While there, he wrote for The Princeton Tory magazine, the conservative student newspaper of Princeton University, and became its publisher.
After graduating from Princeton in , Hegseth briefly joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After graduating from Princeton in , Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard. During β, [ 13 ] [ 21 ] his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, th Infantry Regiment , of the st Airborne Division , where he served as an infantry platoon leader and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.
