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West Point Apologizes, Confirms It Accepted Trump Nominee Pete Hegseth to the Academy
The U.S. Military Academy has issued an apology for claiming incorrectly that Peter Hegseth, the candidate for president-elect Donald Trump's position at the Pentagon, was never admitted to West Point.
According to an examination of our documents, Peter Hegseth was given the opportunity to enroll at West Point in 1999 but chose not to do so. On December 10, 2024, an employee made a false statement about Hegseth's admission to the U.S. Military Academy," a West Point representative emailed The Epoch Times.
Employees discovered this statement was incorrect after conducting a more thorough examination of an archived database. West Point extended an acceptance offer to Hegseth as a potential member of the Class of 2003. The academy regrets this administrative error and takes this matter seriously.
Hegseth made the announcement on December 11 after posting his acceptance letter, dated January 5, 1999, on the social media site X. Hegseth claimed to have discovered that ProPublica was going to release a piece claiming he was rejected by West Point.
In response, Jesse Eisinger, editor of ProPublica, stated that two West Point representatives informed the news outlet that Hegseth had not been admitted. He didn't even apply for admission, according to one. ProPublica went to Hegseth as a result.
In response, Jesse Eisinger, editor of ProPublica, stated that two West Point representatives informed the news outlet that Hegseth had not been admitted. He didn't even apply for admission, according to one. ProPublica went to Hegseth as a result.
"There should be no surprises as the first rule of good journalism." Eisinger wrote, "You have to give the subject of a possible story a fair chance to respond to all of the salient facts in the story."
A ProPublica reporter wrote in an email to Hegseth's lawyer Timothy Parlatore on December 10 that "the school told us that is not true" and that "we're preparing a story about Mr. Hegseth's claims that he was admitted to West Point."
"Why did Mr. Hegseth claim to have gained admission to West Point when that is untrue? Given that Mr. Hegseth has made false claims to gain admission to the military's most esteemed academy, how can he be Secretary of Defense?" the reporter asked in the email, which The Epoch Times examined.
Parlatore was given an hour to answer by the reporter. ProPublica ultimately decided not to publish any stories about the issue.
A ProPublica spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that "that's exactly what happened here: reporters do their job by asking tough questions to people in power." Since trustworthy news outlets only publish information they can confirm, we refrained from publishing a story after Mr. Hegseth supplied thedocumentation that fixed the
Parlatore in a letter to Lt. Gen. Steven W. Gilland, West Point’s superintendent, attached an email from a West Point spokesperson to ProPublica stating that Hegseth had not applied for admission to West Point.
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