Pete Hegseth, Trump’s new Secretary of Defense, raised a few eyebrows when he showed up for his first day of work on Monday, followed by a security guard wearing a kippah. 

“It’s an honor to serve on behalf of the president and serve on behalf of the country,” Hegseth said to the media before entering the Pentagon. “In talking to the chairman and so many other folks here, we’re in capable hands. The warfighters are ready to go.”

Many people speculated on social media that the kippah-wearing security was probably from the Criminal Investigations Division of the military, which is in charge of protecting Pentagon officials.

Critics of the new Secretary of Defense claimed he was a white supremacist based on a tattoo of the Jerusalem cross on his chest, a symbol featuring a large cross potent with smaller Greek crosses in each of its four quadrants. The symbol has its roots in Christianity as the symbolism of the five-fold cross is variously given as the Five Wounds of Jesus, Jesus and the four evangelists, or Jesus and the four quarters of the world. In the early 20th century, the Jerusalem cross was also used as a symbol of world evangelization in Protestantism. For centuries, Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem would mark the achievement by inscribing the tattoo on their flesh. 

He also has a tattoo of the Hebrew word “Yeshua,” or Jesus in Hebrew, which he had done in Bethlehem.

Media reports revealed that when Hegseth addressed an Arutz Sheva conference in Jerusalem at the King David Hotel in 2018, he surprised the attendees by saying that visiting the Western Wall “got me thinking about another miracle that I hope all of you don’t see too far away because 1917 was a miracle, 1948 was a miracle, 1967 was a miracle, 2017, the Declaration of Jerusalem as the capital was a miracle. And there’s no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.”

Hegseth reiterated his belief in a Jewish Temple when he ascended the Temple Mount in 2019, accompanied by Rabbi Chaim Richman, who was, at the time, the International Director of the Temple Institute. 

Hegseth told the rabbi, “Muslim leaders and groups deny the temple of the Bible? Why deny history? Worse, why destroy history (as has been happening on the Temple Mount in recent years)? Because if you deny (and destroy) Jewish claims to the Temple and the old city of Jerusalem, you can justify denying Jews further influence in the city. By denying the Temple, you deny the State of Israel. By denying the Temple, you rally the outside world to see Israel as an ‘occupying force.’”

After he visited the Temple Mount in 2019, as a Fox News correspondent at the time, Hegseth shared:

“On the Temple Mount, Muslims have free access to visit any time and pray. For non-Muslims, it’s a different story… Non-Muslims are permitted to enter the site only on certain dates and at specific times. And Jewish prayer is strictly forbidden… The only entrance to the Temple Mount for non-Muslims is the Mughrabi Gate…We arrived at a checkpoint and waited in a long line… Anyone who looks like a religious Jew must go in an organized group, separated from the rest of the visitors …The Waqf is around, which is the Islamic police looking for anyone praying. And also taking our picture…A lot of questions about what‘s allowed and Isn’t allowed. Certainly, praying [is] not allowed for the Jews or Christians, but there are Muslims praying in the Mosques that are on this site.”

“Muslim leaders and groups deny the temple of the Bible? Why deny history? Worse, why destroy history (as has been happening on the Temple Mount in recent years)? Because if you deny (and destroy) Jewish claims to the Temple and the old city of Jerusalem, you can justify denying Jews further influence in the city. By denying the Temple, you deny the State of Israel. By denying the Temple, you rally the outside world to see Israel as an “occupying force.”