Trump's Defense Secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, faces scrutiny for alleged mistreatment of women. His mother initially accused him but later retracted her statements, defending his character.

Penelope Hegseth wrote that Donald Trump's selection for secretary of defense "belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego"

Pete Hegseth’s mother trashed his character in a blistering email amid his contentious divorce and from his second wife, Samantha, mother of three of his children. Penelope Hegseth, 70, wrote that President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary had been mistreating women for years.