Fact Check: Was Pete Hegseth asked to skip D-Day ceremony by residents of a French village?

LANGRUNE-SUR-MER, FRANCE: Following the anniversary of the D-Day landings, a major Allied operation during the Second World War, a rumor began circulating on social media claiming that residents of a French village that hosted a ceremony marking the 82nd anniversary of the event said Pete Hegseth was not welcome to attend.

Let us fact-check the claim.

Claim: French village asks Pete Hegseth to skip D-Day ceremony 

According to the rumor circulating online, as France held events marking the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, residents of a village that hosted a commemorative ceremony said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was not welcome to attend.

A Facebook post about the claim stated, “BREAKING: French Villagers just called Pete Hegseth 'persona non grata' and demanded he stay home from D-Day ceremonies."

"Pete Hegseth made the trip to Normandy, France for the D-Day anniversary, but residents of Langrune-sur-Mer made clear he was not welcome."

"Locals and civic groups in the small coastal town publicly declared him unwanted before he even landed, releasing a pointed statement demanding his visit be canceled outright.”

The claim also circulated on X, Instagram, Threads, Reddit, and Bluesky, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.

Fact Check: The claim is indeed true

The claim is indeed true. Langrune en Commun, a residents' association in Langrune-sur-Mer, issued a statement on June 2 asking Hegseth to cancel his visit to the village for a planned D-Day ceremony on June 6.

According to the statement, Hegseth embraced values "contrary to democracy, human rights and peace" and criticized the symbolism of his tattoos, arguing that his visit to Langrune-sur-Mer should be canceled out of respect for the people "who died on our beaches in the name of democracy."

French news channel BFM TV reported that Hegseth was "persona non grata" in Normandy because of the statement. The term, which means unacceptable or unwelcome, was subsequently used by some social media users while sharing the claim.

Although Hegseth did not attend the ceremony, the reason for his absence remains unclear.

Pete Hegseth invokes migration at D-Day event

Hegseth used a speech in Normandy to warn that Europe faces a new kind of “invasion” from arriving migrants, arguing that the freedom won by Allied troops could prove temporary if leaders failed to defend it.

His remarks brought a contemporary political debate into one of the West’s most symbolic wartime commemorations. They also underscored how Trump administration officials are increasingly linking migration concerns to broader national security messaging.

Hegseth told attendees that “different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies.”