Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to travel to Israel just one day before President Donald Trump lands in Saudi Arabia to mark the first international trip of his second term, according to a report.
An Axios report on Saturday detailed the U.S. defense secretary’s planned visit, which includes Hegseth meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 12.
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Afterward, Hegseth will join Trump in Saudi Arabia, where the president is expected to hold a summit with Gulf leaders. That summit is set for May 14 and will likely include the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar.
The visit to the Middle East will mark Hegseth’s third foreign trip as defense secretary. In February, he traveled to Europe, with stops in Germany, Belgium, and Poland, which included a meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels. A month later in late March, he met with key Indo-Pacific allies including Japan and the Philippines, and also visited Guam.
But the trip to Israel and the Middle East is vital as the region deals with a variety of conflicts, including Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza as well as the U.S. military’s campaign against the Yemeni Houthis, the rebel group that disrupted shipping routes in the Red Sea for nearly two years.
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The news of Hegseth’s trip follows a tumultuous month of April for the defense secretary at home. Reports of a Signal chat leak that included him sharing military plans against the Houthis in a group chat with his family members dominated the news cycle in the last two weeks. Officials close to Hegseth have also called his behavior “erratic” and claimed that he has become more “insecure” about the status of his job after recent controversies.
Still, Trump has repeatedly backed Hegseth, most recently saying in an interview he thinks “he’s gonna be a very good defense — hopefully a great defense secretary.”