{"id":107898,"date":"2024-11-19T00:03:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T00:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/trump-defense-secretary-pick-pete-hegseth-was-flagged-as-potential-military-insider-threat-because-of-deus-vult-tattoo\/"},"modified":"2024-11-19T00:03:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T00:03:56","slug":"trump-defense-secretary-pick-pete-hegseth-was-flagged-as-potential-military-insider-threat-because-of-deus-vult-tattoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/trump-defense-secretary-pick-pete-hegseth-was-flagged-as-potential-military-insider-threat-because-of-deus-vult-tattoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth was flagged as potential military ‘insider threat’ because of ‘Deus Vult’ tattoo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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James Devaney\/GC Images\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(WASHINGTON) — The National Guardsman who in 2021 pegged\u00a0Pete Hegseth\u00a0as a potential “insider threat” clarified in an interview with ABC News that his complaint targeted\u00a0a “Deus Vult” tattoo\u00a0on the former Fox News host’s arm — not a cross on his chest, as Hegseth has repeatedly claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President-elect Donald Trump last week\u00a0tapped Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense. He listed Hegseth’s experience as a veteran and his media experience as his reasons for the choice.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Reuters\u00a0and The\u00a0Associated Press\u00a0first reported, Sgt. DeRicko Gaither sent an image of the “Deus Vult” tattoo to Maj. Gen. William Walker shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The phrase, which translates from Latin to “God wills it,” has been co-opted by white nationalist groups,\u00a0experts have said.<\/p>\n

“This information is quite disturbing, sir,” Gaither wrote in the email to Walker, who has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. “This falls along the lines of (an) Insider Threat.”<\/p>\n

Hegseth claimed in his book “The War on Warriors” that his “orders were revoked” ahead of Biden’s inauguration because fellow service members had flagged a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross on his chest as a white nationalist symbol.\u00a0As a result, Hegseth wrote, he resigned from the military.<\/p>\n

But Gaither clarified in a text message to ABC News that his complaint targeted the “Deus Vult” tattoo, despite\u00a0“the narrative that has been out there.”<\/p>\n

“Just so we are clear. This has NOTHING to do with the Jerusalem Cross tattoo on his chest,”\u00a0Gaither wrote in the text.\u00a0“This has everything to do with the ‘DEUS VULT’ Tattoo on his inner bicep.”<\/p>\n

Gaither\u2019s sensitivity to what he described as the “disturbing” imagery in Hegseth’s tattoos came at a time when the military was grappling with the fact that\u00a0dozens of active and former\u00a0service members had participated in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

Gaither, who confirmed to ABC News the contents of his complaint — which he wrote just one week after Jan. 6, emphasized that\u00a0“this wasn’t then and isn’t now a personal attack towards Pete Hegseth.”<\/p>\n

“The information received and [the] email sent on January 14th was the protocol that had to be followed because of the position assignment that I was assigned to,”\u00a0explained Gaither, who was at the time assigned as the Guards’ head of security. “The protocol was followed and would be followed again if this issue involved any other service member, myself included.”<\/p>\n

As ABC News has reported,\u00a0Hegseth fired back\u00a0at the initial coverage of this matter in The Associated Press by claiming it was “Anti-Christian bigotry.”<\/p>\n

“They can target me \u2014 I don\u2019t give a damn \u2014 but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD,” Hegseth wrote on X.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Devaney\/GC Images\/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — The National Guardsman who in 2021 pegged\u00a0Pete Hegseth\u00a0as a potential “insider threat” clarified in an interview with ABC News that his complaint targeted\u00a0a “Deus Vult” tattoo\u00a0on the former Fox News host’s arm — not a cross on his chest, as Hegseth has repeatedly claimed.\u00a0Read More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}