Pete Hegseth, the current U.S. Secretary of Defense and a 2003 Princeton graduate, is facing allegations of plagiarism after his alma mater's student newspaper uncovered multiple uncited or improperly cited passages in his senior thesis—including text nearly identical to a 2001 Washington Post article.
The Daily Princetonian reviewed Hegseth's 90-page senior thesis, "Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context," and found eight examples of plagiarism ranging from sham paraphrasing to verbatim copying without quotation marks.
Written during his time as an undergraduate at Princeton, the paper examined the rhetorical strategies of U.S. presidents during global crises. The thesis had not previously come under scrutiny and was submitted in accordance with the university's academic policies.
Using plagiarism detection tools and input from three academic integrity experts, the Prince found that some of Hegseth's most questionable passages borrowed language directly from books, newspapers and internet sources without proper attribution. While experts agreed these examples violated Princeton's "Rights, Rules, Responsibilities," they differed on the severity of the infractions.
"To answer the question of whether it violates Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities, it obviously does," Jonathan Bailey, an expert on plagiarism, told the paper. However, he explained, "Plagiarism is an umbrella term covering everything from just a few sentences to wholesale copying of an entire work."
A Department of Defense spokesperson called the report a politically motivated distraction in a statement to military.com, insisting there was "no plagiarism." The revelations have stirred debate among academics, watchdogs and political observers about what qualifies as serious plagiarism—especially in work completed before the widespread use of modern detection tools.
Although Princeton's policies are clear, the university has no stated process for retroactively addressing undergraduate violations discovered after graduation.
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