Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s 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.
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.
Video of the family’s 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.
“I’ve never, ever seen anything like that with a whole family going,” said one former official with the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, or CID, the agency responsible for securing the defense secretary’s movements at home and abroad. Like others interviewed for this report, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
.@SECWAR has just arrived in Paris, France. pic.twitter.com/alauS6EyR2
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) June 5, 2026
A spokesman for Hegseth said the defense secretary is covering the cost of his family’s travel but did not specify whether that includes the additional security personnel needed to protect his family.
“Secretary Hegseth follows all ethics rules, regulations, and guidelines to the letter,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. The Defense Department’s travel policies are applied “consistently and with full accountability,” Parnell continued, adding that the department maintains “rigorous standards to ensure taxpayer resources are protected while senior leaders fulfill their official duties.”
A spokesman for the Army CID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
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’ 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.
The Washington Post first reported on the family’s unique security needs last year.
The State Department has an active travel advisory for France, urging Americans to exercise increased caution “due to terrorism and unrest.” The government also has issued a general worldwide caution for U.S. travelers abroad, saying, “Groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world.”
For a defense secretary, overseas travel requires an advance team to scope out security before the secretary’s arrival, extra agents to ensure all of the family’s movements are covered, and personnel to run a control center and staff motorcade protection, a former CID official said.
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’d have to rent full-size SUVs if none were available from the U.S. Embassy, then pay for food, airfare and hotels.
“It got expensive real quick,” this person said. “I can’t imagine the resource strain” of providing security for the whole family.
A current Army official said that the increased costs stemming from Hegseth’s 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.
“As a taxpayer, I’m concerned about it,” the official said. “But 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?”
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.
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