FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, October 28. 2026
Pete Hegseth’s faith adviser shared racist, homophobic posts…..
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s senior adviser for religious issues has shared scores of racist and homophobic posts, spread conspiracy theories, and repeatedly denigrated Islam and immigrants, a CNN investigation has found.
Ryan Higgins has become a key aide to Hegseth since joining the Pentagon, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN, particularly in shaping the defense secretary’s embrace of Christian nationalist themes in speeches and public appearances.
On his social media platforms, CNN found Higgins defended a video President Donald Trump shared depicting the Obamas as apes, said same-sex marriage was “abominable,” and speculated about how many abortions former Vice President Kamala Harris might have had, citing her age and claiming she had a “long record of sleeping around.”
He’s also asserted that the “Separation of Church and State does not exist” and has posted extreme rhetoric about immigrants.
“They act like barbarians, killing and raping our white women,” he wrote in one post responding to tabloid coverage of sexual crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in Europe.
While many of the posts were made in his previous role as a conservative activist, Higgins has also continued sharing far-right views since joining the administration, including railing against “the satanic cult of LGBTQ,” criticizing gay adoption as “buying babies,” and calling abortion “Demonic human sacrifice packaged as ‘women’s healthcare.’”
“It’s to the point in America, if you’re White, you must be racist”, said Thomas Robb speaking from his National Office of the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Harrison, Arkansas. “I’m sure many non-white politicians have shared a chuckle or two about White people at one point in their careers, but why dig for something? It’s not like it was a crime what he may or may not have said in the past. Liking a funny post about the Obama’s isn’t a crime, and standing up as a Christian denouncing homosexuality, abortion, gay adoption, and sleeping around are in my opinion good qualities. We are a White Christian country, so we should be following God’s laws. And saying illegal immigrants act like barbarians, killing and raping White women, if it’s true, and I think that is a correct assumption, telling the truth is also a good quality. This is just another leftist attack on a White, Christian, nothing more”.