Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth has a longstanding fascination with the Crusades. That’s proper, the Crusades: the collection of late eleventh to thirteenth century medieval wars through which Europeans fought to manage the Holy Land. He has tattoos that reference the Crusades, which truly got here up throughout his affirmation listening to in 2025. And his 2020 ebook is titled American Campaign. The ultimate chapter is titled “Make the Campaign Nice Once more.”
Hegseth paints the Crusades as a “defensive struggle” through which Christianity needed to react or face being overrun by Islam. Based on professor of medieval historical past Matthew Gabriele, that is an excessive oversimplification of the particular historical past. And viewing the previous on this method might have probably harmful ramifications on the present struggle in Iran.
Pete Hegseth’s obsession with the Crusades might appear to be a character quirk, like your uncle who’s obsessive about World Battle II submarines. However when that worldview influences how a protection secretary thinks about fashionable conflicts, it stops simply being in regards to the previous — and it begins shaping the longer term.
Vox producer Nate Krieger took a better have a look at this “Holy Battle” to research the precise historical past of the Crusades and to know how Pete Hegseth’s curiosity in medieval historical past may truly have an effect on US overseas coverage and the way forward for the struggle in Iran.
