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29th August 2025
04:32pm BST
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is best known for accidentally including a journalist in a Whatsapp chat where state secrets were being discussed.
The politician, who identifies as a Christian nationalist, has made headlines around the world again this week after The Guardian exposed a number of explosive comments made by a former pastor at his church.
Joshua Haymes, now host of the controversial Reformation Red Pill podcast where Hegseth has appeared four times, has made a range of outlandish claims over the past 12 months, including that Donald Trump's ICE deportation troops have Biblical support.
The preacher-turned-podcaster has also advocated for capital punishment for those who commit adultery or perform abortions.
Haynes has recently distanced himself from his previous role at Hegseth's Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship church, maintaining that his only role is now in the media as a podcaster.
In one podcast episode, Haymes seemed to reference the racist 'great replacement theory', as he claimed "mass immigration is designed by liberal globalists to destroy, to destroy our culture … Anglo-Protestant culture.”
Adding: "they want open borders and they didn’t hide it, right? They, and specifically, they want more non-Christian, non-white people to come [to] supplant and replace the white voting population.”
In another podcast clip, Haymes said: "Public executions are Biblical. Therefore public executions are good. Therefore we should bring back public executions.”
As well as suggesting that those in the LGBTQ community should be prevented from adopting children, Haymes has also made violent comments towards marchers at Pride events.
When reposting footage from the June 2025 Nashville Pride march, Haymes wrote: “I do not believe that anyone should be drowning anyone in this scenario. I am simply stating the fact that Christ says that drowning is better than causing little ones to sin.”
“My role is simply to give that warning. Pride marchers who are sexualizing children are in for a very, very harsh judgment when they stand before their maker.”
The direct connection between a powerful figure like Pete Hegseth and an extremist Christian figure has led to serious concern across the political spectrum in the US.
This is best summed up by Heidi Beirich, co-founder and chief strategy officer of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
She said: “The leader of the Pentagon is in league with white supremacists, Confederacy lovers, people who want to take away women’s right to vote and slavery apologists. In earlier eras, a person with ties like that would never have reached the heights of federal power or been acceptable to the GOP.”
