Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s father thought he was taking a victory lap. Critics answered by reminding him what Hegseth’s mother once wrote about their son.
Brian Hegseth, a longtime high school basketball coach who coached his son, posted a Halloween photo on X on Saturday. It shows him with his wife, Penelope Hegseth, standing on either side of Pete Hegseth, who wears a Forest Lake basketball jersey and holds a basketball under a hoop. Both parents are giving a thumbs-up.
“Just two supportive parents still supporting their benchwarming son! Attn @AbdulElSayed,” Brian Hegseth wrote. “Happy Halloween.”
The post was aimed at Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan. In an interview with comedian Hasan Minhaj released Oct. 28, El-Sayed mocked Hegseth’s high school sports career. According to accounts of the interview, he said Hegseth “would have rode the pine” and described Hegseth’s mother wearing her son’s jersey to games.
Brian Hegseth had already fired back once. He wrote on X that El-Sayed had “little man syndrome,” according to The Washington Times. A few hours after the Halloween photo, he followed up with a picture of his son’s plaque in the Forest Lake Rangers Hall of Fame. “BTW, the benchwarmer made his HS HOF,” he wrote.
Many people who saw the photo of Penelope Hegseth in her son’s corner remembered a very different message from her.
In November 2024, The New York Times published parts of an email she sent her son in April 2018, during his divorce from his second wife.
“You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth,” she wrote, according to the Times. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years).”
Penelope Hegseth told the Times she wrote the email “in anger, with emotion” and apologized right away in a separate email. She said her characterization of how her son treats women “has never been true.”
Hegseth has been married three times. As has been widely reported, he had an affair with former Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet, now his wife, while he was still married to his second wife, Samantha Deering. Rauchet gave birth to their daughter before that divorce was finalized in 2018. According to his answers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), obtained by the Associated Press, Hegseth also paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017. He has denied wrongdoing and said the encounter was consensual. Monterey County prosecutors declined to file charges.
Not everyone was critical. Conservative podcast host Katie Miller, wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, quote-posted the photo with one word: “Incredible.”
Fox Business’ Charles Gasparino replied, “you should be proud of everything he accomplished including how he has turned to faith in the good Lord.”
Just two supportive parents still supporting their benchwarming son! Attn @AbdulElSayedHappy Halloween 🎃 https://t.co/B8KWVxlAVI
— Brian Hegseth (@brianhegseth) October 31, 2026