Pete Hegseth, the politically inexperienced weekend Fox News host tapped by Trump to lead the Pentagon, has been embroiled in scandal for the past week. The controversy has largely centered around reports that Hegseth paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault, while he claims the encounter was consensual. (NBC got one copy of the police report; A spokesperson for Hegseth said: “The incident was fully investigated and the police found the allegation to be false, therefore no charges were laid.” Police did not give a reason for the decision not to press charges.)

However, Hegseth’s actual politics have received much less attention, and in particular his apparent ties to Christian nationalism. That question came into focus initially because two of Hegseth’s tattoo is oneassociated with right-wing extremist groups (Hegseth has said that the charge is “antichrist bigotry“). Hegseth is doing little to dispel the perception of extremism, calling earlier this week for an “educational uprising” to take over America’s schools.

As Right Wing Watch flaggedHegseth made his comments Monday on a right-wing podcast while debating a book he published in 2022in which he and his co-authors pledged to give “patriotic parents the ammunition to join a rebellion that gives America a fighting chance” against teachers. Hegseth has ties to Christian nationalistswho see religiously affiliated schools — some of which receive public funds — as key to their efforts to blur the boundary between church and state.

On Monday’s podcast, Hegseth agreed when one of the hosts suggested that Christian schools should be seen as bootcamps to groom children for the so-called rebellion.

“That’s what the harvest of these classical Christian schools will do in a generation,” Hegseth said. “Policy responses like school choice, while they’re great, that’s phase two stuff later when the foothold is established, when the recruits have graduated.”

Hegseth continued:

“Of course this is all metaphorical and all that good,” Hegseth added.

Ask yourself: In a country where school violence is common, do Americans really need a Secretary of Defense who has promoted a war – figurative or not – against American schools? Consider the message this might send at a time when far-right religious extremists already portray schools as enemy territory. And then consider what it looks like to have the top civilian leader of the US military affirming his views.

It is, of course, typical of defense secretaries to have battle plans, but if confirmed, Hegseth will be unique in that the war he is most prepared to wage is not against a foreign combatant but against the institutions and people he will be sworn to protect. .