Fox anchor Pete Hegseth interviews entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel during “FOX & Friends” at Fox News Channel Studios on August 9, 2019 in New York City. (John Lamparski / Getty Images)
By Samantha Chang November 14, 2024 at 6:30am
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, was banned from Joe Biden’s 2021 presidential inauguration because he has a Christian cross tattoo on his chest.
The Fox News host made the alarming revelation during a Nov. 7 podcast with former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan.
Hegseth, an Army National Guard officer, is a decorated war veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2020, he volunteered to be part of a 25,000-troop National Guard unit to protect Biden’s January 2021 inauguration.
However, the father of seven was removed from duty after being branded a “white nationalist” because of his Jerusalem Cross tattoo, a Christian symbol.
“I was deemed an ‘extremist’ because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington D.C. and my orders were revoked to guard the Biden inauguration,” Hegseth said.
“This one [motioning to a Christian cross tattoo on his chest] is what got me disinvited. I had never had orders revoked before,” he added.
Interesting. Couple of years ago, I had a scoop which the Pentagon later confirmed that Twelve U.S. National Guard members were removed from securing then President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration after vetting. Turns out one of them was @PeteHegseth https://t.co/0lSzyOjzzm pic.twitter.com/QcQQmtUJJ1
— Jim LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) November 7, 2024
Even if you’re not a fan of tattoos, do you support what Hegseth’s stand for?
Hegseth recounted: My commander called me a day before, tepidly, and was like, ‘Major, you can just stand down. We don’t need you. We’re good.’”
When Hegseth pressed his commander for a reason behind the ban, he got stonewalled.
The Defense Secretary nominee later learned that “someone inside the D.C. Guard” had scoured his social media accounts and flagged his Christian cross tattoo as a symbol of white supremacy.
Hegseth recalled: “I reached out to somebody in the unit who could confirm with 99.9 percent certainty because he was in the meetings and on the emails [who told me], ‘Someone inside the D.C. Guard trolled your social media, found a tattoo, used it as an excuse to call you a white nationalist, an extremist, and you were specifically — by name — orders revoked to guard the inauguration because you were considered a potential threat.’”
This incident spotlights again why it was imperative for the toxic Biden administration to be ousted with extreme prejudice.
Smearing someone as a “white supremacist” simply for sporting a Christian cross tattoo that’s not even visible under a uniform is the height of race baiting and anti-Christian animus.
It’s outrageous how common and accepted it is to target and persecute Christians in the United States, which, and this can’t be stressed enough, is 68 percent Christian.
Here’s what puts you on a watch list in Biden’s America:
– Purchasing a Bible
– Shopping at a Sporting Goods Store
– Shopping at a Camping Store
– Saying the name “Trump”
– Saying “MAGA”Unbelievable https://t.co/xoIDdYCY8k
— Lance Gooden (@Lancegooden) January 17, 2024
BREAKING News: 5.21.2024 US Capitol a Christian Preacher just got arrested in front of me for talking about the Bible & handing out a Christian postcard. I have never seen anything like this. Officially the persecution of non violent Christians has started in the U.S.A. pic.twitter.com/4BZ68WmjSi
— Corinne Cliford 🇺🇸 (@corinnecliford) May 21, 2024
As a reminder, the House Judiciary Committee unveiled a shocking report in December 2023 showing that Biden’s FBI had targeted Catholics and tried to infiltrate churches under the guise of “deterring terrorism.”
Would this type of blatant religious harassment be tolerated against Muslims or Buddhists or the people who kneel at the altar of far-leftism? Yet there’s hardly any media outcry over anti-Christian animus.
Hopefully, with America-first Christians taking on some leadership roles in the Trump administration, this horrifying trend will end — for good.
Samantha Chang is a political commentator, lawyer and financial editor in NYC.
Samantha Chang is a politics writer, lawyer and financial editor based in NYC.
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