{"id":2896,"date":"2026-06-05T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2896"},"modified":"2026-06-05T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:06:08","slug":"hegseth-takes-six-of-his-children-to-france-on-official-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2896","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth takes six of his children to France on official trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon says he is covering their travel expenses, but bringing them along could strain his security team at a time of increased threats, officials warned.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Justice Department tells court $1.8 billion payout fund is \u2018not going forward\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (R) departs Air Force One in December. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s decision to bring six of his children on an official trip to France that began Friday is putting added strain on his personal protective detail amid heightened threats stemming from the Iran war, one current and two former employees of the agency responsible for his security said.<\/p>\n

Hegseth, whose wife, Jennifer Hegseth, also joined the trip, is in France to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of D-Day and honor the tens of thousands of American troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.<\/p>\n

Video of the family\u2019s arrival in Paris shows them walking down a long red carpet and past a welcoming delegation of French officials, after descending from the U.S. military jet that flew them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never, ever seen anything like that with a whole family going,\u201d said one former official with the Army\u2019s Criminal Investigative Division, or CID, the agency responsible for securing the defense secretary\u2019s movements at home and abroad. Like others interviewed for this report, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Hegseth said the defense secretary is covering the cost of his family\u2019s travel but did not specify whether that includes the additional security personnel needed to protect his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Hegseth follows all ethics rules, regulations, and guidelines to the letter,\u201d chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. The Defense Department\u2019s travel policies are applied \u201cconsistently and with full accountability,\u201d Parnell continued, adding that the department maintains \u201crigorous standards to ensure taxpayer resources are protected while senior leaders fulfill their official duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Army CID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

CID also provides security for the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Army leadership, and other current and former top Pentagon officials.<\/p>\n

In the about 17 months since Hegseth took office, CID has seen its demands balloon as the agency also provides protective details at the homes of the Hegseths\u2019 former spouses, who live in Minnesota and Tennessee. Hegseth had three children with his second wife, and Jennifer Hegseth had three children from a previous marriage. The two have a daughter together.<\/p>

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The Washington Post first reported<\/a> on the family\u2019s unique security needs last year.<\/p>\n

The State Department has an active travel advisory for France, urging Americans to exercise increased caution \u201cdue to terrorism and unrest.\u201d <\/b>The government also has issued a general worldwide caution for U.S. travelers abroad, saying, \u201cGroups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and\/or Americans throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a defense secretary, overseas travel requires an advance team to scope out security before the secretary\u2019s arrival, extra agents to ensure all of the family\u2019s movements are covered, and personnel to run a control center and staff motorcade protection, a former CID official said.<\/p>\n

This former official explained that when he worked on executive protection details for CID, the agency would typically budget twice the number of days on the ground for each agent on duty. They\u2019d have to rent full-size SUVs if none were available from the U.S. Embassy, then pay for food, airfare and hotels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got expensive real quick,\u201d this person said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine the resource strain\u201d of providing security for the whole family.<\/p>\n

A current Army official said that the increased costs stemming from Hegseth\u2019s security needs have taken a toll on the agency and that, as a result, CID has struggled to provide adequate training for its agents and Army criminal investigations have been curtailed in some instances.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a taxpayer, I\u2019m concerned about it,\u201d the official said. \u201cBut as a professional who always has to claw for money to do just basic missions, I just look at that cost and think, how much more of X, Y and Z could we have bought if not for that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hegseths have taken their children on official trips in the past, as well, including one in October that included a stop in Hawaii. At the time, the Pentagon would not say whether the secretary reimbursed the government for the cost of having his family accompany him.<\/p>

Read more 5 takeaways from the grueling Senate funding battle that just ended<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon says he is covering his family\u2019s travel expenses, but bringing them along could strain his security team during a time of increased threats, officials warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHegseth takes six of his children to France on official trip - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2896\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hegseth takes six of his children to France on official trip - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pentagon says he is covering his family\u2019s travel expenses, but bringing them along could strain his security team during a time of increased threats, officials warned.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2896\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T23:06:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a20c8bbf76d9943c4cc97e3b43c44178-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Hegseth takes six of his children to France on official trip\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-05T23:06:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896\"},\"wordCount\":807,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/32709c69a0f54844e0eb407388046f5b-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896\",\"name\":\"Hegseth takes six of his children to France on official trip - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/32709c69a0f54844e0eb407388046f5b-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-05T23:06:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2896#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/32709c69a0f54844e0eb407388046f5b-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/32709c69a0f54844e0eb407388046f5b-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1706,\"caption\":\"JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND - DECEMBER 17: U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (R) departs Air Force One as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on December 17, 2025 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. 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