section_path: Career/Fox News (2014–2024)
section_name: Fox News (2014–2024)
paragraph_text: Fox News (2014–2024)
  
  By June 2014, Hegseth had become a regular contributor to Fox News by the network's executive, Roger Ailes. In 2016, he was briefly a host on TheBlaze before regularly hosting Fox & Friends Weekend that year after Ailes's resignation, becoming an official co-host in January 2017. According to a Fox News executive in Hoax (2020), Jennifer Rauchet, a producer of Fox & Friends Weekend who would later marry him, "was favoring Pete with airtime" and "kept putting Pete on TV." Hegseth served as a temporary host for Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle (2017–present) in an effort by the network to promote other staffers; the change occurred during the boycott of The Ingraham Angle following comments Ingraham had made about David Hogg, an activist and survivor of the Parkland high school shooting. He hosted All-American New Year (2018) with commentator Lisa Kennedy.
  
  Hegseth's opinions expressed on Fox & Friends influenced Trump's policymaking in his first term. In October 2018, as a migrant caravan began traveling to the United States, Trump claimed that "unknown Middle Easterners" had infiltrated the caravan. Trump apparently cited a comment that Hegseth had made on Fox & Friends, though Hegseth noted that he had not verified his statement for accuracy. Hegseth himself apparently had based his claim on a statement Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales had made on capturing one hundred ISIS fighters in the country. In negotiations to avert a federal government shutdown, Democrats neared a deal until Hegseth urged Trump not to support a deal that did not include US$5 billion for his border wall. Trump repeated claims that Hegseth had made correlating video games with mass shootings after two mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton in August 2019. Hegseth claimed that he had spoken to Trump on pardoning war criminals Clint Lorance and Mathew L. Golsteyn, as well as reversing the demotion of Eddie Gallagher.
  
  At Fox News, Hegseth was the subject of multiple lawsuits. In June 2015, he threw an axe during a Flag Day event in New York City, accidentally hitting a drummer from the United States Military Academy. Video of the incident was widely circulated online. The drummer, Jeff Prosperie, alleged that he had suffered "severe and serious personal injuries to his mind and body" and "permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement and loss of body function." Prosperie filed a lawsuit against Hegseth three years later; the suit was resolved in an unspecified way in 2019. In Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network (2023), Dominion Voting Systems included a segment of Fox & Friends Weekend featuring Hegseth with co-hosts Will Cain and Rachel Campos-Duffy, in which they did not reject claims by Rudy Giuliani of election fraud being facilitated by the company's voting machines.
  
  Hegseth was chosen among Fox News's hosts to be featured on Fox Nation, the network's streaming service. To promote the service, he co-hosted a one-hour special, Fox Nation First Look, with Jesse Watters, Tomi Lahren, Britt McHenry, and Tyrus. On Fox Nation, Hegseth hosted The Miseducation of America (2022–2023), a television program criticizing "the Left's educational agenda". He also hosted the series Battle in the Holy Land (2019–2023) and The Life of Jesus (2022–2023), and the special Battle in Bethlehem (2019), on the service.
  
  By June 2014, Hegseth had become a regular contributor to Fox News by the network's executive, Roger Ailes. In 2016, he was briefly a host on TheBlaze before regularly hosting Fox & Friends Weekend that year after Ailes's resignation, becoming an official co-host in January 2017. According to a Fox News executive in Hoax (2020), Jennifer Rauchet, a producer of Fox & Friends Weekend who would later marry him, "was favoring Pete with airtime" and "kept putting Pete on TV." Hegseth served as a temporary host for Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle (2017–present) in an effort by the network to promote other staffers; the change occurred during the boycott of The Ingraham Angle following comments Ingraham had made about David Hogg, an activist and survivor of the Parkland high school shooting. He hosted All-American New Year (2018) with commentator Lisa Kennedy.
  
  Hegseth's opinions expressed on Fox & Friends influenced Trump's policymaking in his first term. In October 2018, as a migrant caravan began traveling to the United States, Trump claimed that "unknown Middle Easterners" had infiltrated the caravan. Trump apparently cited a comment that Hegseth had made on Fox & Friends, though Hegseth noted that he had not verified his statement for accuracy. Hegseth himself apparently had based his claim on a statement Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales had made on capturing one hundred ISIS fighters in the country. In negotiations to avert a federal government shutdown, Democrats neared a deal until Hegseth urged Trump not to support a deal that did not include US$5 billion for his border wall. Trump repeated claims that Hegseth had made correlating video games with mass shootings after two mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton in August 2019. Hegseth claimed that he had spoken to Trump on pardoning war criminals Clint Lorance and Mathew L. Golsteyn, as well as reversing the demotion of Eddie Gallagher.
  
  At Fox News, Hegseth was the subject of multiple lawsuits. In June 2015, he threw an axe during a Flag Day event in New York City, accidentally hitting a drummer from the United States Military Academy. Video of the incident was widely circulated online. The drummer, Jeff Prosperie, alleged that he had suffered "severe and serious personal injuries to his mind and body" and "permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement and loss of body function." Prosperie filed a lawsuit against Hegseth three years later; the suit was resolved in an unspecified way in 2019. In Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network (2023), Dominion Voting Systems included a segment of Fox & Friends Weekend featuring Hegseth with co-hosts Will Cain and Rachel Campos-Duffy, in which they did not reject claims by Rudy Giuliani of election fraud being facilitated by the company's voting machines.
  
  Hegseth was chosen among Fox News's hosts to be featured on Fox Nation, the network's streaming service. To promote the service, he co-hosted a one-hour special, Fox Nation First Look, with Jesse Watters, Tomi Lahren, Britt McHenry, and Tyrus. On Fox Nation, Hegseth hosted The Miseducation of America (2022–2023), a television program criticizing "the Left's educational agenda". He also hosted the series Battle in the Holy Land (2019–2023) and The Life of Jesus (2022–2023), and the special Battle in Bethlehem (2019), on the service.