WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told close friends and associates that he is considering a run for president in 2028, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, have floated the idea of a presidential run for the past few months, believing he has some of the same attributes that have made Donald Trump popular with the MAGA movement, the people said. Trump’s core voters appreciate Hegseth’s toughness, defiance and conservative stance on social issues, they said.
Hegseth’s appearance at the Iowa State Fair on behalf of a Republican congressman earlier this month kindled both surprise and speculation about his possible presidential ambitions.
Iowa has long been a springboard for presidential campaigns. The state’s caucuses have traditionally come first in the nominating calendar, making Iowa a magnet for presidential hopefuls.
“Secretary Hegseth is not running for president, and his main priority is leading the War Department. All other speculation is foolish,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Asked to comment on Hegseth’s potential interest in a presidential bid, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “After Joe Biden’s Pentagon prioritized DEI and woke ideology, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth quickly reversed course and restored a Department of War that is focused on readiness, lethality and supporting our warfighters. Secretary Hegseth is doing an incredible job leading the Pentagon, and his results speak for themselves.”
A former Fox News host, Hegseth is one of the Cabinet members who’s been deployed on the campaign trail to mobilize Trump voters ahead of the midterm elections in November.
At the fair, he wore jeans and a button-down shirt with sleeves rolled up as he campaigned for Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and touted what he described as a transformation in the military.
“At the Department of War, we do training, not ‘trannies,’” said Hegseth, using a derogatory term for transgender people. “It is a day-and-night difference. Training, lethality, accountability, discipline, readiness — the bedrock of what it means to be an American warrior is the only focus of our department.”
Hegseth’s presentation, delivered with the practiced cadence of a onetime media personality, resonates with male Trump voters, in particular, said a Republican operative involved in midterm races who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the strategic considerations.
“Hegseth is good for men, for base voters,” the operative said. “He encapsulates that masculinity that Trump captured in 2024.”
The Republican field figures to be crowded in 2028, Trump’s last full year in office. If Hegseth runs, he could potentially face two of the most senior figures in Trump’s administration: Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Pete Hegseth should consider running for president,” Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said in an interview. “He’s an impressive guy and has a tremendous amount of energy.”
The defense secretary job has never been a pipeline to the presidency. Though some renowned historical figures have held the post — notably George Marshall, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work rebuilding Europe after World War II — no defense secretary has made the leap to commander in chief.
Inevitably, Hegseth would face scrutiny over the unpopular Iran war. A Fox News poll in July found 34% of registered voters approved of the president’s handling of Iran, with 66% disapproving.
The conflict has caused gas prices to spike from an average of less than $3 a gallon to just over $4. Eighteen American service members have died. And Iran has shown that it can disrupt the global economy by firing at ships crossing the narrow Strait of Hormuz as the war grinds on with no clear end in sight.
“MAGA really loves Hegseth because they love the cut of his jib. But you’ve got to deliver the goods. If you want to be secretary of war, you’ve got to win wars,” said a pro-Trump operative close to the White House.
Another vulnerability could be an episode last year dubbed “Signalgate.” A Defense Department inspector general report found that Hegseth had “sent sensitive, nonpublic, operational information that he determined did not require classification over the Signal chat on his personal cell phone.” The information involved a pending military strike on Houthi forces in Yemen.
The report also found that “the Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”
In a social media post about the findings, Hegseth wrote: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report.”
In May, Hegseth traveled to Kentucky to campaign for the primary opponent of a sitting Republican congressman who has drawn Trump’s ire, Rep. Thomas Massie. Massie, a critic of the Iran war, went on to lose the primary fight to Ed Gallrein, who secured Trump’s endorsement.
Three former defense secretaries, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and William Cohen told NBC News that Hegseth has made the sort of partisan political appearances that they purposely eschewed.
Hagel, who served as defense secretary under Obama and before that was a Republican senator from Nebraska, said in an interview, “My God, we’re at war. We’ve got a huge problem. We’ve got a global issue here that we’ve gotten ourselves into with this mess, and what are you doing going to Iowa and campaigning when you should be paying attention to your job?”
Asked for comment about Hegseth’s political travels, a Pentagon official said: “Department staff are not involved in, nor privy to, the details of events that Secretary Hegseth attends in his personal capacity. Therefore, we have no comment.”
A watchdog group called Democracy Forward sent a letter to the Defense Department’s inspector general in May questioning whether Hegseth’s Kentucky trip ran afoul of the department’s policy meant to preserve “the non-partisan character of our military.”
In a written reply the following month, the inspector general’s office said that Hegseth “wrote his own speech” and attended in his “own personal capacity rather than an official one.” The White House had approved Hegseth’s campaign appearance, the inspector general’s letter said.
