Hegseth’s Crusader tattoos: White supremacist dog whistles or ‘spiritual kitsch?’ Or a bit of both?

If Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s designee for Secretary of Defense, knows what he’s talking about, I’m beginning to worry that I might be wearing an alt-right hate group’s insignia around my neck. It’s an inexpensive little Jerusalem cross I bought at a gift shop in Bethlehem. I don’t recall the name of the store, but it was run by an NGO that supports craftsmen and -women in the occupied territories of the West Bank. I wanted to support the local economy, so I bought the little cross.

The design, a Greek cross surrounded by four smaller crosses, is an insignia for the Custody of the Holy Land, the Franciscan mission responsible for the Latin (Catholic) churches and holy sites in Israel and the occupied territories. I’d been seeing it at Franciscan shrines throughout the Galilee, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It brings back cherished memories, and I’ve been wearing it ever since.

It’s not only a symbol of the Custody (often known by its Latin name, the Custodia Terræ Sanctæ), but also of the Latin (Catholic) Patriarchate of Jerusalem and, more generally, the ongoing presence of Christians in the Holy Land. (You can see a Jerusalem cross on the flag in the video above. The video, by the way, is an excellent summary of the Franciscans’ pastoral and educational work in Israel and the occupied territories.)

Now, as we’re learning more about Pete Hegseth and his radical-right sympathies, I’ve come to find out the Jerusalem cross, among other symbols dating back to the Crusades, has been appropriated by right-wing extremists “as a symbol of the fight for Western civilization,” as the British newspaper The Independent, puts it.

The Jerusalem cross isn’t on the ADL’s list of hate symbols per se, but Hegseth proudly bears (and occasionally bares) the tat along with several tattoos that clearly are. And he claims the cross is “too extreme” for the “woke” National Guard. You might say, if you’re in the mood for a pun, he wears his extremism on his sleeve.

Well, I’m going to keep wearing my little Franciscan cross from Bethlehem, but I want everybody to know I’m not advocating some kind of theocratic crusade. Nor am I a fan of Hegseth’s.

As so often happens with all matters in Trumpworld, it’s not entirely clear what Hegseth thought he was doing when he got the Jerusalem cross tattoo. But since his nomination, it’s become controversial (although, in all fairness, it’s been overshadowed by other, more lurid controversies). Vice President-elect JD Vance has entered the fray, accusing the Associated Press of “disgusting anti-Christian bigotry” for reporting on it.

I’m not even going to try to sort it out. All I can do is point out: (1) what the Jerusalem cross actually signifies; (2) what Hegseth seems to think it means; (3) where it fits into Hegseth’s bare-chested (and bare-sleeved) proclamation of his political and cultural leanings; and (4) speculate on what the whole tempest in a teapot could mean for the “culture wars” going forward.

Early Christians, the Crusades and the Jerusalem cross

One thing I’ve known for a long time, even before culture wars, the American mass media are by and large religiously illiterate. Functionally subliterate might be a more charitable word. So, rather than trying to parse the media accounts, let’s go first to the Franciscans’ website in Jerusalem. There we learn that the Jerusalem cross most likely predates the Crusades that saw a western European kingdom established in Palestine during the 12th century:

It is more probable that the Jerusalem cross evolved from a Greek cross with dots in place of the small crosses used by the very first Christian community in the Middle East in Roman times, a thousand years before the Crusades. Indeed, many of the signs found in different places in the Holy Land are reminiscent of the Jerusalem cross, including some mosaics where it is identical to the current one. This is the link underlying the basis for the adoption of the symbol by the Franciscans of the Holy Land.

Its meaning — no surprise here! — is strictly religious, symbolizing the five wounds of Christ. “The cross,” add the Franciscans of the Custody, “which has always been a cosmic symbol of the number four referring to the four cardinal points and to the infinite, represents the cosmic presence of the Divine Power.” However, with the establishment of the Crusader kingdom in 1099, “the Jerusalem cross took on a political meaning, alongside its religious meaning, as well as one of territorial identity.”

Wikipedia’s article documents use of the Jerusalem cross in 14th-century depictions of Crusader king Godfrey of Bouillon and notes that in “late medieval heraldry the Crusader’s cross was used for various Crusader states.” Hence, no doubt, its appropriation by modern Islamophobes and extremists.

A brief history of the Franciscan presence in the Holy Land on the Saxum Visitor Center website picks up the story from there. Ironically enough, it was made possible by the failure of the Crusades. In 1219 St. Francis met in Egypt with Al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin the sultan of Egypt, in a failed attempt to evangelize him. Neither party was moved to convert, but their conversation was cordial and helped set the tone for later Franciscan endeavors in the Middle East.

“Not much is known about the content of the interview from direct sources, but it is said that Francisco’s offer was politely rejected,” says Henri Gourinard on the Saxum website. “Later on Francis traveled to Palestine to visit the Holy Places and establish there the first convents of the Order of Friars Minor [Franciscans] in the Holy Land.”

The Franciscans were expelled by the Mamluk Sultanate in 1291, but contact resumed after the Crusades ended. Gourinard picks up the story from there:

As early as the 1320s, the King of Aragon, Jaime II, the papacy, and the Republic of Venice resumed contact with the Sultan of Cairo. Although one cannot speak of diplomatic normalization between Christianity and the Mamluk empire, conditions for a return of Catholic pilgrims to the Holy Land were established at that time. The Franciscans again took the road to the Holy Land. Sometimes they also stopped in Egypt where they ministered to the spiritual needs of the Christians in the sultan’s prisons. In the 1330s, the Franciscans rebuilt the Cenacle of Mount Zion [traditional site of the Last Supper] which laid in ruins. In 1342, Pope Clement VI, with the bull Gratias agimus, solemnly confirmed the Franciscan presence in Jerusalem. It marked the birth of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

The Franciscans of the Custody then took up the coat of arms of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem: a red cross surrounded by four small crosses, also red, symbol of the five wounds of Jesus on the Cross. For centuries the friars of Mount Sion have cared for, guided and housed thousands of Catholic pilgrims in the Holy Land. Over time, their mission has been enriched by the pastoral care of Christians in the Holy Land: it is no longer so much about guarding the stones of the sanctuaries, but about serving the local Christian communities: parishes, schools, social centers, etc., which constitute the “living stones” of the Church in the Holy Land.

It’s that context I first saw the Jerusalem cross, and it is in that context I prefer to think of it.

What Pete Hegseth says about the Jerusalem cross

Actually, it’s a little hard to pin down. He’s said different things at different times. Hegseth says it’s a religious symbol — good for him, he’s got that right — but he also claimed on Fox News it’s so controversial it got him removed from a National Guard detail at the time of President Biden’s inauguration. An Associated Press story (picked up by Politico) tried to get to the bottom of it after Trump nominated him secretary of defense. The AP found:

Hegseth, who has downplayed the role of military members and veterans in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and railed against the Pentagon’s subsequent efforts to address extremism in the ranks, has said he was pulled by his District of Columbia National Guard unit from guarding Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. He’s said he was unfairly identified as an extremist due to a cross tattoo on his chest.

That tattoo features the Jerusalem cross (shown above in a screen grab from a Democracy Now! TV show). Here’s how Hegseth described the incident in June on the Fox & Friends TV show:

I was in the National Guard during the inauguration of Joe Biden, so I served under Bush, served under Obama, served under Trump, and now was going to guard the inauguration because I was in the D.C. guard… ultimately, members of my unit in leadership deemed that I was an extremist or a white nationalist because of a tattoo I have, which is a religious tattoo. It’s a Jerusalem cross. Everybody can look it up, but it was used as a premise to revoke my orders to guard the inauguration. [Ellipsis in the original.]

Writing up the segment on Fox & Friends, Taylor Penley of Fox News added, “Hegseth posited whether the reason for the revoked order boiled down to other factors – his support for former President Donald Trump or perhaps even the left labeling him a ‘patriot extremist’.” But Hegseth left out part of the story. The AP reported:

Retired Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither, who was serving as the D.C. Army National Guard’s physical security manager and on its anti-terrorism force protection team in January 2021, told the AP that he received an email from a former D.C. Guard member that included a screenshot of a social media post that included two photos showing several of Hegseth’s tattoos.

Gaither told AP he researched the tattoos — including one of a Jerusalem Cross and the context of the words “Deus Vult,” Latin for “God wills it,” on his bicep — and determined they had sufficient connection to extremist groups to elevate the email to his commanding officers.

Several of Hegseth’s tattoos are associated with an expression of religious faith, according to Heidi Beirich of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, but they have also been adopted by some far right groups and violent extremists. Their meaning depends on context, she said.

Hegseth’s tattoos: The context matters

Well, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say Hegseth’s Jerusalem cross tat well may be a sincere expression of relgious faith — after all, I wear one around my neck — but I also think we probably ought to look at context. In Hegseth’s case, I’d look first at his other tattoos. Writing in The Bulwark, a center-right publication critical of Trump, Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque detail some of them:

Hegseth’s right arm is covered from top to bottom, and most of the images draw from Revolution-era propaganda primarily associated nowadays with the “Patriot” rhetoric of militia movements and QAnon. Three of these are clearly visible in the cover photo for one of his books, American Crusade: (1) the year 1775 in Roman numerals, (2) “We the People” in a stylized colonial script, and (3) an American flag with a modified M-4 superimposed over the lower bars. He also has Ben Franklin’s famous “Join or Die” cartoon—the chopped-up snake representing the fate of the non-unified colonies—on the underside of his forearm. On his shoulder he has the insignia of the 187th Infantry Regiment in which he served; his elbow is decorated with a circle of stars and the crook of his arm features a pair of crossed muskets. [Links in the original.]

Lecaque, who teaches college courses on the Crusades at Grand View University in Des Moines, adds:

[Hegseth’s] shoulder has a Chi Rho, a Catholic symbol with roots that go back to the dawn of Christendom; the name of Jesus is rendered in Hebrew characters across his elbow.

And then there are the tattoos that have made the work of historians of the Crusades depressingly relevant to contemporary politics again: a sword embedded in a cross on Hegseth’s inner forearm—it represents Matthew 10:34, the verse wherein Christ says, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”—and, most disturbing of all, a gothic inscription on his bicep: “Deus Vult.”

Deus vult is the Latin for “God wills it.” During the First Crusade, it was raised as a battle cry. This is its univocal origin and context, and Hegseth knows it well: In American Crusade, he refers to it as “the rallying cry of Christian knights as they marched to Jerusalem,” a summons to “followers of Christ to take up the sword in defense of their faith, their families, and their freedom.” It provides the last words in American Crusade: “See you on the battlefield. Together, with God’s help, we will save America. Deus vult!” And have I mentioned that his book is titled American Crusade? [Links in the original.]

While we’re on the subject of Hegseth’s religious tats, the Times of Israel has an interesting sidelight:

He later added “Yeshua,” or Jesus in Hebrew, under the sword [tattoo on his forearm]. Hegseth told the site Media Ink in a 2020 interview, that the tattoo was Jesus’ Hebrew name, which he mistakenly said was “Yehweh,” a Biblical spelling of God’s name. He told Media Ink that he got the tattoo while in Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace, which is located in the present-day West Bank, where he was reporting for Fox Nation.

All matters of faith aside, you’d think a Secretary of Defense might want to have enough knowledge of Middle Eastern religions to tell the difference between Jesus and YHWH, the Jewish written representation of God usually transliterated in English as Yahweh or Jehovah.

What does it mean for the ‘culture wars?’

Like I said, I’m not going to quit wearing the cross I bought at the Palestinian gift shop in Bethlehem. And Hegseth is free to tattoo whatever he wants to on his chest. If it’s a cross, so be it. If he wants a tat with Thor’s hammer, I’m OK with that too. Or a Viking beserker? Fine and dandy. Either one would be a fine addition to the warrior image he likes to cultivate. In fact, Jeff Sharlet, writing teacher at Dartmouth, told an intrviewer for Democracy Now! he thinks that image is what got Hegseth the job:

The No. 1 person who calls Pete Hegseth an extremist is Pete Hegseth, It’s the way he leads out his interviews, it’s the idea he was too extreme for today’s “woke military,” dominated as he put it, [in] his words, by trans, lesbian, Black females. […] He’s from central casting, he’s got the chiseled jaw, he’s got the biceps thet he flexes on his Instagram, showing off his tattoos that are from the white supremacist world.

Writing in the Bulwark, Lecaque and Annika Brockschmidt, a German jouralist who follows the “religious right” in America, connect the dots like this:

HEGSETH HAS NEVER BEEN SUBTLE about any of this; his tattoos are like a collage of aggressive bumper stickers such as you might see on the back of a truck with steer horns over the windshield. Importantly, “Deus Vult” has never been interpreted as a call for spiritual combat—for reflection and prayer. It has always been understood as a call for violent action, for blood. This interpretation remains consistent in its widespread adoption by the Christian far right around the world, including by some who marched on the Capitol on January 6th, and one who perpetrated shocking white supremacist violence against Muslims in New Zealand.

The story that emerges from Hegseth’s sleeve is a familiar one; it provides a veritable checklist of today’s Christian nationalist folklore. Among many who espouse a union of church and state, gun tattoos such as Hegseth’s amount to a kind of spiritual kitsch, a younger and more radical generation’s version of putting a framed print of Albrecht Dürer’s study of praying hands on the dining room wall. [Links in the original.]

Links and Citations

“A New Crusade? Trump Taps Christian Nationalists Pete Hegseth & Mike Huckabee to Top Posts,” interview with Jeff Sharlet, Democracy Now!, Nov. 15, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UofrISLbaPE.

Associated Press, “Pete Hegseth had been flagged by fellow service member as possible ‘Insider Threat’,” Politico, Nov. 15, 2024 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/15/pete-hegseth-flagged-insider-threat-00189991.

Mike Bedigan, “‘Christian motto’ or nationalist dog whistle? Could a tattoo derail Trump’s pick for defense secretary?,” Independent, Nov. 15, 2024 https://www.yahoo.com/news/christian-motto-nationalist-dog-whistle-001733757.html.

Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque, “What’s the Deal With Pete Hegseth’s Crusader Tattoos?,” The Bulwark, Nov. 14, 2024 https://www.thebulwark.com/p/whats-the-deal-with-pete-hegseth-crusader-tattoos.

“The Cross of the Holy Land,” Custodia Terrae Sanctae, Jerusalem https://www.custodia.org/en/custody-and-its-history/.

Henri Gourinard, “Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Origins of Franciscan presence in the Holy Land,” Saxum Visitor Center, Abu Ghosh, Israel, Oct. 21, 2022 https://www.saxum.org/saint-francis-and-the-sultan-the-origins-of-franciscan-presence-in-the-holy-land/.

Jacob Gurvis and Asaf Elia-Shalev, “Trump’s nominee to lead Pentagon has multiple Christian and Crusader-inspired tattoos,” Times of Israel, Nov. 15, 2024 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-nominee-to-lead-pentagon-has-multiple-christian-and-crusader-inspired-tattoos/.

Alex Miller, “Vance defends tattooed Hegseth,” Washington Times, Nov. 16, 2024 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/nov/16/jd-vance-defends-tattooed-pete-hegseth/.

Taylor Penley, “‘The War on Warriors’: Pete Hegseth shares shocking never-before-told Biden inauguration story in new book,” Fox News, June 4, 2024 https://www.foxnews.com/media/war-warriors-pete-hegseth-shocking-never-biden-inauguration-story-new-book.

[Uplinked Nov. 17, 2024]