Pete Hegseth lands in another controversy: US Defense Secretary under scrutiny again after Signal Gate scandal

Time of India

12-05-2025

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has landed in yet another controversy. After
Signal Gate scandal
and row over his wife attending high-level sensitive military meetings, Hegseth has been accused of plagiarism by the student paper at Princeton University — his alma mater, according to The Independent.
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The Daily Princetonian has alleged that Pete Hegseth's 2003 senior thesis contains eight instances of "uncredited material, sham paraphrasing, and verbatim copying."
Pete Hegseth accused of plagiarism
Hegseth's thesis titled "Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context," was reviewed by three plagiarism experts. They were not made aware of the identity of the author before assessing the work.
In one example, Hegseth wrote about President George W. Bush's reaction to being told of the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11.
'After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders, joking that they 'read like sixth-graders,'' wrote the now defense secretary.
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An article in The Washington published in 2001 shortly after the attacks, reads: 'After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders read and soon was smiling again. He joked that they read so well, they must be sixth-graders.' The Post article is not cited in Hegseth's paper.
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Plagiarism detection models identified 12 passages in the thesis, of which experts consulted by the newspaper deemed only eight to be notably significant. The remaining four, while not individually alarming, were considered to contribute to 'a broader pattern of some form of plagiarism.'
Although all three experts agreed that the passages breached Princeton's academic integrity rules, they differed in their assessments of the severity—some viewed the violations as serious, while others considered them too minor to warrant major concern.
James M. Lang, author of Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty, characterised the case as "borderline," stating to the Princetonian, "There's no silver bullet here; there's no smoking gun in terms of a deep example of plagiarism."
Instead, he noted that the situation presented more "gray than black and white," circumstances, with roughly half of the plagiarism examples being severe and the other half being relatively minor.
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One example where experts diverge is a passage written by the defense secretary regarding former President John F. Kennedy's Berlin Wall speech.
"The Berlin Wall speech represents a rare occurrence in presidential rhetoric; caught up in the emotion of the moment, Kennedy, who had just given a speech about the need for peace, got carried away and just ad-libbed the opposite, saying there was no way to work with the Communists," Hegseth penned.
The passage closely mirrors one found in Richard Reeves' book President Kennedy: Profile of Power, which states: 'In his enthusiasm, Kennedy, who had just given a peace speech and was trying to work out a test ban treaty with the Soviets, had gotten carried away and just ad-libbed the opposite, saying there was no way to work with Communists.'
Although Reeves is cited in Hegseth's paper—even in reference to that specific sentence—quotation marks are not used. While Lang views the issue as serious, Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today told The Princetonian that the infraction wasn't particularly severe.
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'Even the ones that were more direct still typically only involve a sentence or two at a time,' Bailey explained. Guy Curtis, an academic integrity researcher at the University of Western Australia, noted that the thesis did violate university rules regarding unattributed copying.
'Once you get 10 to 15 words in a row by 'accident' that match something else — it's probably not accidental,' Curtis said.
Still, there are no formal regulations governing plagiarism discovered after graduation. Bailey suggested these instances likely stemmed from negligence rather than intent. 'This doesn't fit the pattern of someone who deliberately, maliciously tried to plagiarize their way through,' he said. 'It seems more like a case of poor writing practices and weak methodology.'
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Pentagon responds
After The Daily Princetonian published its piece, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell released a statement to military.com showing his support for Hegseth.
"Secretary Hegseth has written five books. He's written hundreds of papers and op-eds. During the confirmation process, every word was reviewed by top left-wing law firms working in conjunction with every media outlet in the country," Parnell said.
Hegseth has recently faced scrutiny over two Signal group chat incidents and significant Pentagon departures. The first involved a chat established by national security adviser Mike Waltz where Hegseth shared Houthi attack plans. The second chat, involving his family members and lawyer, discussed similar matters, though Hegseth maintained it was "informal" and "unclassified."
"They found no plagiarism because there was no plagiarism. This is a fake story designed to distract from the DoD's historic accomplishments under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's leadership."