Hegseth's Arabic Tattoo Draws Heat

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Pete Hegseth is under fire for his personal body art.

In shocking new photos of the Secretary of Defense doing a training exercise at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Tuesday, March 25, people zeroed in on Hegseth's tattoo of the controversial Arabic word "kafir" on his right arm.
Join us to read why the ink is troublesome to many Americans…
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In the pictures of Pete Hegseth's workout at the historic location, the phrase on his limb reads, "kafir." According to Islamic Scholar Abdullah Al Andalusi, the word means someone who has "disbelief" or "a rejection of true belief."

The right-wing politician also has "Deus Vult" — a phrase attributed as a rallying cry of the First Crusade — inked on his body.

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The public was outraged by the show of contention toward the Muslum community on Pete Hegseth's body.
"It appears Islam lives so rent-free in Pete Hegseth's head that he feels the need to stamp himself with tattoos declaring his opposition to Islam alongside a tattoo declaring his affinity for the failed Crusaders, who committed genocidal acts of violence against Jews, Muslims and even fellow Christians centuries ago," the National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Nihad Awad said in a statement via USA Today.

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This is not the first time Pete Hegseth has been accused of Islamophobia. In December 2024, The New Yorker published a report that the former Army National Guard officer was allegedly drunk at an Ohio bar in 2015, chanting, "Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!" 
During a November 2024 interview, Hegseth admitted he was reshuffled from a National Guard deployment to former President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021 because officers in charge thought his tattoos were "too extreme."

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Pete Hegseth's week has been filled with controversy after The Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg claimed he was accidently included in a group text message with the Princeton University alum and 18 other members of Donald Trump's administration discussing military strikes in Yemen.
When asked about the slip-up during his trip to Hawaii, Hegseth slammed the reporter for revealing the mistake to the public. "He's deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again," he stated via Ad Week.