President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense, former Army National Guard officer Pete Hegseth, and his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, recent spoke about Antifa protesters and agreed that if “channeled properly,” these young men “would be the exact people you’d want signing up to serve.”
As seen and heard in the video below, both Hegseths admit that at first they “bristled” at the idea, but then realized that Antifa protesters “have this instinct and this energy to pour in and fight for something.”
Mrs. Hegseth believes that Antifa protesters have been “taught to hate America” and that “because they’re taught that America is bad, they’re fighting for the wrong thing.” Still the temptation to mine that Antifa “instinct and energy” and put it to work for the U.S. military is attractive to Mrs. Hegseth. “What an asset they could be,” she says.
Mr. Hegseth claims his personal interaction with Antifa — while holding a riot shield — showed him something about them, and he was impressed: “They’re racist… but they’ve got guts. They’re pretty brave. They believe in what they’re doing.”
Trump Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth’s wife said Pete believes Antifa protesters are the “exact people you’d want signing up to serve” in the military.
Pete Hegseth then added: “They have guts. They’re pretty brave. They believe in what they’re doing.” pic.twitter.com/dOmgspeM1I
— PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) November 26, 2024
NOTE: Antifa is a contraction of the phrase “anti-fascist.” The Center for Strategic & International Studies defines Antifa as a “decentralized network of far-left militants that oppose what they believe are fascist, racist, or otherwise right-wing extremists.” Network members “frequently conduct counter-protests to disrupt far-right gatherings and rallies.”
Antifa groups were among those who protested the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hegseth has a tattoo on his bicep featuring the words “Deus Vult” (translated from Latin, “God wills it”), a slogan used by several white supremacist groups, and which was on prominent display among the far-right at the Charlottesville riot in 2017.
Hegseth has not been linked to white supremacist groups, though the tattoo made some fellow guard members uncomfortable enough to get Hegseth removed from a role guarding the 2021 Biden inauguration.
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
NOTE: While in the White House, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in May 2020, Trump wrote on X: “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” That claim did not come to fruition.