Fox News host Pete Hegseth has been nominated by President-elect Trump to serve as Secretary of Defense, leading the largest agency in the US federal government and overseeing a total of 3 million military and civilian personnel. Hegseth, a supporter of Bitcoin, has praised Trump for making Bitcoin great again and has stated that he will not sell his Bitcoin holdings.
In his announcement, Trump described Hegseth as strong, smart, and a true believer in putting America first, and expressed confidence that under Hegseth’s leadership, the military will be great again. As a retired veteran, Hegseth has expressed dissatisfaction with the policies of the Pentagon leadership. If confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth is expected to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise of removing military leaders who have been accused of implementing progressive and diverse policies, policies that conservatives have long opposed.
This appointment could potentially lead to conflicts between Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, as Hegseth has accused Brown of following the extreme positions of left-wing politicians.
Hegseth, a Princeton and Harvard graduate, served as a veteran in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He received the Bronze Star Medal twice. He left the military in 2021, citing that his political and religious views were not accepted by the military and he felt marginalized.
Since 2014, Hegseth has worked as a commentator for Fox News, and he has hosted special New Year’s programs and interviewed then-President Trump. In 2022, he became a regular member of the highly-rated morning show. He recently published a book titled “The War on Our Warriors,” criticizing the left-leaning American society for neglecting the children of US soldiers who are fighting around the world.
It is worth noting that Hegseth is a supporter of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin. He has praised Trump for making Bitcoin great again and has emphasized that the value of Bitcoin lies in its lack of government control. He has also announced that he will not sell his Bitcoin holdings.
The Department of Defense is the largest government agency in the United States, with an annual budget of $850 billion. It oversees a total of 3 million military and civilian personnel. With Hegseth leading the Pentagon, his pro-Bitcoin stance is worth paying attention to.
Last year, Major Jason of the US Space Force wrote a letter to the Pentagon, extensively explaining the strategic importance of Bitcoin’s Proof of Work (PoW) for national cybersecurity. He argued that Bitcoin’s PoW network represents the asymmetric warfare of the 21st century, and Bitcoin is not just a financial innovation but also a normalization revolution in cybersecurity, aligning perfectly with the concept of strategic deterrence.
Major Jason also wrote a book advocating that the consensus mechanism of Bitcoin will bring significant changes to the global war landscape, where future wars will no longer be fought over boots on the ground or nuclear weapons, but rather over Bitcoin block rewards. He called on the United States to fully support the mining industry in order to protect the strategic interests of the US and its allies.