Amongst the many attacks launched on combat veteran and Bronze Star recipient Pete Hegseth since he was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the Secretary of Defense in the second Trump Administration, one of the most obviously false is an attempted smear by the outlet Pro Publica about Hegseth’s history with West Point.
As background, Hegseth has said in the past that he was accepted to West Point but decided not to attend. Instead, he decided to attend Princeton for undergrad, and participated the school’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program. Pro Publica planned to attack him for that claim, with a report saying he did not actually get an acceptance to West Point.
To compile its report on the matter, Pro Publica contacted West Point multiple times, and every time it informed the outlet that Hegseth had not been accepted to the school, as he said he did. So, Pro Publica thought it had done its due diligence and exposed Hegseth as a liar, and readied to fire the broadside his way.
The problem, however, is that West Point was either lying or incorrect when it told Pro Publica that Mr. Hegseth had not been accepted. In fact, Mr. Hegseth had been accepted in 1999, the year he claimed that he was, and he took to X (formerly Twitter) with his copy of the admission letter he received, showing Pro Publica wrong, having been misled by West Point, and West Point lying about him.
In his post on X, to which he attached a copy of the letter, Hegseth said, “We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999. Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army.”
Pro Publica Senior Editor Jesse Eisinger, quote tweeting Hegseth’s post, said, “Hegseth has said that he got into West Point but didn’t attend. We asked West Pt public affairs, which told us twice on the record that he hadn’t even applied there. We reached out. Hegseth’s spox gave us his acceptance letter. We didn’t publish a story. That’s journalism.”
Commenting on Eisinger’s post, once commenter asked if Pro Publica was investigating why the military academy was lying about a Trump nominee, asking, “Are you interested in investigating why West Point Public Affairs lied to you repeatedly in an attempt to aid in a smear campaign against a Presidential appointment nominee to run the Deportment of Defense or would looking into that clear scandal not be journalism’?”
A spokesperson for the Army later apologized, saying, “A review of our records indicates Mr. Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend West Point. An incorrect statement involving Mr. Hegseth’s admission to the United States Military Academy was released by an employee on December 10, 2024. Upon further review of an achieved database, employees realized this statement was in error. Mr. Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the class of 2003. USMA takes this situation very seriously, and we apologize for this administrative error.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, in a letter to the military academy and its superintendent, called the report a hit piece, saying, “I’m concerned about reports that a U.S. Military Academy official has provided false information to a left-wing reporter writing a derogatory hit piece about Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense.”
Watch the embattled Hegseth speak about meeting with the Senate regarding his nomination here:
