After the woman threatened litigation in 2020, Parlatore said Hegseth made the payment and she signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Trump is reported to be standing by his selection of Hegseth, despite claims that members of his transition team are reassessing the pick.

“President Trump is nominating high-calibre and extremely qualified candidates” for his administration, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said in a statement. “Mr Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation.”

Hegseth, who has played down the role of military members and veterans in riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and railed against the Pentagon’s subsequent efforts to address extremism in the ranks, has said he was pulled by his District of Columbia National Guard unit from guarding Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. He’s said he was unfairly identified as an extremist due to a cross tattoo on his chest.

This week, however, a fellow Guard member who was the unit’s security manager and on an anti-terrorism team at the time, shared with The Associated Press an email he sent to the unit’s leadership flagging a different tattoo reading “Deus Vult” that has been used by white supremacists, concerned it was an indication of an “Insider Threat”.

J.D. Vance, the vice president-elect, came out swinging in defence of Hegseth amid reports highlighting the ink.

“They’re attacking Pete Hegseth for having a Christian motto tattooed on his arm,” he posted on X.

“This is disgusting anti-Christian bigotry from the AP, and the entire organisation should be ashamed of itself.”

Hegseth reposted Vance’s comments, adding it showed the “anti-Christian bigotry in the media on full display”.

“They can target me – I don’t give a damn – but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s [Donald J Trump’s] DoD [Department of Defence],” Hegseth wrote.

Trump nominated Hegseth – author of books including Battle for the American Mind and The War on Warriors – as part of his push to fill major administration posts quickly. The defence role has by convention gone to former military leaders, politicians or government officials with decades of experience, so his confirmation by the Senate would be an unconventional move.

On Sunday (AEDT), Trump made a further cabinet announcement, appointing oil and gas industry executive Chris Wright, a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, to lead the Department of Energy.

Wright is the founder and chief executive of Liberty Energy, a North American energy company with links to a fracking project in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.

Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism. “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either,” Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year.

Wright, who does not have any political experience, has written extensively on the need for more fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty.

Bloomberg, AP, staff reporters

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