Pete Hegseth Sparks Outrage With Wild New Arabic Tattoo

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quietly debuted a new tattoo this week while posting a set of workout photos, sparking fierce backlash among critics who claim it holds a distinctly anti-Muslim message.

Eagle-eyed social media users spotted the ink on the underside of Hegseth’s bicep after he posted photos of himself exercising with soldiers at a military base in Hawaii.

The tattoo is the Arabic word “kafir,” which translates to “disbeliever” or “infidel.” Critics say that it clearly brands Hegseth, who is a devout Christian, as an enemy of Islam. It remains unclear when he got the new ink—but the symbol does not appear in photos of Hegseth as recently as several months ago.

“Hegseth just got a kafir (????) tattoo under his Deus Vult tattoo—a Crusader slogan,“ wrote pro-Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani, who is Muslim. ”It isn’t just a personal choice; it’s a clear symbol of Islamophobia from the man overseeing U.S. wars.”

The latin phrase “Deus Vult,” which also appears on Hegseth’s bicep, means “God wills it.” It is associated with the First Crusade, which saw 11th-century European Christians try to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims. Many of Hegseth’s tattoos relate to Christianity and American patriotism.

“To the Muslim world the tattoo will be seen as an open declaration of Hegseth’s enmity towards them,” wrote journalist Tam Hussein.

British journalist Dilly Hussain, meanwhile, wrote, “Muslims should not be offended or shocked at Pete Hegseth’s new ‘kafir’ tattoo or his crusader ‘Deus Vult’ tattoo. He’s merely displaying America’s foreign policy and mindset to Islam and Muslims.”

However, user @BrotherRasheed defended Hegseth’s tattoo as a common “symbol of defiance against Islamic terrorists” among U.S. veterans who have served in the Middle East.

“It’s commonly seen on stickers, the backs of trucks, T-shirts, and mugs,” the account wrote. “Personally, I had it on a hat, a mug, and even on the door of my office.”

Hegseth did tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He has made killing terrorists—largely in Muslim countries—a key goal in the early days of his tenure as defense secretary.

The Pentagon did not answer the Daily Beast’s request for comment on Hegseth’s tattoo.

The controversy comes on the heels of another scandal involving Hegseth. The defense secretary shared operational details about an imminent strike targeting terrorists in Yemen on a group chat which inadvertently included a prominent journalist: Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

Hegseth has insisted that no classified details or “war plans” were shared, despite accounts to the contrary.

Hegseth has more than a dozen tattoos, the most notorious of which is the Jerusalem Cross on his chest. The symbol is associated with Christian nationalists, and it got Hegseth, who was part of the National Guard, kicked off duty at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.

“Members of my unit in leadership deemed that I was an extremist or a white nationalist because of a tattoo I have, which is a religious tattoo,” Hegseth told Fox News last June, explaining how he felt it was misconstrued.

His body also features a cross with a sword through it, which is an allusion to a bible verse, and “We the people”—the words that begin the preamble to the Constitution—among others.

Hegseth explained in a 2020 interview that he got his first tattoo when he was around 37 or 38. He had always wanted one, but his father had stopped him when he was younger.

Since then, Hegseth, who is 44, has been on a roll, adding one after the other.

“I knew inside my soul this was something I wanted to do and I’ve finally hit the chapter in my life that I’m able to do it,” he said.

Hegseth added that an upside of the ink is that people “know were I stand. I wear my views on my sleeve anyway.”