section_path: Political positions/Domestic issues
section_name: Domestic issues
paragraph_text: Domestic issues
  
  Hegseth holds strongly conservative views and is regarded as a Christian nationalist. In his book American Crusade (2020), Hegseth characterized "Americanism" as being opposition to movements such as feminism, globalism, Marxism, and progressivism, equated democracy to a leftist demand, and expressed support for election-rigging through gerrymandering to "screw Democrats ". He described progressives and Democrats as enemies of freedom, as well as the United States and the Constitution. Hegseth has said that victory for America includes the end of globalism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, Islamism, genderism, and leftism. He has repeated false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election and spread conspiracy theories about Antifa involvement in the January 6 attack.
  
  Hegseth initially supported Florida senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, but later began to favor Texas senator Ted Cruz and finally Donald Trump. He defended Trump's policies in his first term, including his interactions with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. While on Fox News in 2016, Hegseth was highly critical of Hillary Clinton due to her email controversy, where he indicated that "recklessness in handling information" would normally lead to job firings and criminal prosecution, while risking foreign governments gaining access to the information and damage to relationships with allied countries.
  
  In an interview with the National Review in March 2012, Hegseth advocated for premium support in Medicare and removing fee-for-service. He opposed a contraception mandate and described the Keystone Pipeline as a dichotomy between "jobs and an environmental-impact study", and that he was "always going to side with jobs." On Fox & Friends in 2019, Hegseth described climate change as an attempt at government control. In March 2025, he canceled climate change studies and decried the phenomenon as "crap" on social media. That month, he sought to eliminate climate planning from the Department of Defense but included an exception for extreme weather preparation.
  
  Hegseth holds strongly conservative views and is regarded as a Christian nationalist. In his book American Crusade (2020), Hegseth characterized "Americanism" as being opposition to movements such as feminism, globalism, Marxism, and progressivism, equated democracy to a leftist demand, and expressed support for election-rigging through gerrymandering to "screw Democrats ". He described progressives and Democrats as enemies of freedom, as well as the United States and the Constitution. Hegseth has said that victory for America includes the end of globalism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, Islamism, genderism, and leftism. He has repeated false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election and spread conspiracy theories about Antifa involvement in the January 6 attack.
  
  Hegseth initially supported Florida senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, but later began to favor Texas senator Ted Cruz and finally Donald Trump. He defended Trump's policies in his first term, including his interactions with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. While on Fox News in 2016, Hegseth was highly critical of Hillary Clinton due to her email controversy, where he indicated that "recklessness in handling information" would normally lead to job firings and criminal prosecution, while risking foreign governments gaining access to the information and damage to relationships with allied countries.
  
  In an interview with the National Review in March 2012, Hegseth advocated for premium support in Medicare and removing fee-for-service. He opposed a contraception mandate and described the Keystone Pipeline as a dichotomy between "jobs and an environmental-impact study", and that he was "always going to side with jobs." On Fox & Friends in 2019, Hegseth described climate change as an attempt at government control. In March 2025, he canceled climate change studies and decried the phenomenon as "crap" on social media. That month, he sought to eliminate climate planning from the Department of Defense but included an exception for extreme weather preparation.