Who is Pete Hegseth? Trump's defence sec who accused Europe of 'pathetic free-loading'

War veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth is Donald Trump's defence secretary.

The 44-year-old has the US military's top job. He only just secured the Pentagon post, with vice president JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote - marking just the second time in history a vice president has broken a tie for a cabinet nominee.

But who is Mr Hegseth and why has he proved to be such a controversial figure? Who is Pete Hegseth? He is a veteran of the Army National Guard who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and before his appointment by Donald Trump, was a popular conservative media personality. After graduating from Princeton University in 2003, Mr Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, serving overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at Guantanamo Bay.

He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and also unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012. He later became co-host of the Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends Weekend programme, contributing to the network for a decade.

He developed a friendship with Mr Trump through the businessman-turned-politician's regular appearances on the show. Mr Hegseth has also written several books, some for Fox's publishing imprint, including The War On Warriors.

Mr Trump complimented that book when announcing Mr Hegseth's nomination, noting its "nine weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, including two weeks at NUMBER ONE". According to his Fox News bio, he has a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's John F.

Kennedy School of Government. With no experience in senior military or national security, his critics have argued he is not qualified for the defence secretary role.

Controversial military takes In his most recent book - The War On Warriors: Behind The Betrayal Of The Men Who Keep Us Free - Mr Hegseth mocked and misgendered transgender servicemembers and said the military was turning off recruits. He wrote: "America's white sons and daughters are walking away, and who can blame them?" Despite writing about "sons and daughters" in the US army, he has also questioned the role of women in combat.

In an interview on The Shawn Ryan Show podcast last year, he said: "Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means casualties are worse. "I'm straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles - it hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated." He argued that by opening combat slots to women, "we've changed the standards in putting them there, which means you've changed the capability of that unit".

All combat roles were opened to women for the first time in US history in 2016, and they have to pass the same tests as men to serve. Mr Hegseth has also defended service members accused of war crimes, urging Mr Trump on his show in 2019 to pardon many of them.

His efforts were successful, with Mr Trump that year pardoning a former US Army commando set to stand trial for the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker and a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire upon three Afghans, killing two. He also ordered a promotion for a decorated Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State captive in Iraq.

Sexual assault allegations from 2017 A police report released in November detailed how Mr Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017 - but was never charged. Before the report was released, Mr Hegseth confirmed he had paid an undisclosed amount as part of a settlement with his accuser.

The police documents detailing the allegations were then released following a request by US journalists under a local public records act. They showed that a woman told police she was sexually assaulted by Mr Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a hotel room and refused to let her leave.

The report said the unidentified woman, referred to as "Jane Doe.