At the beginning of the political crisis that started in 2020, Hishammuddin returned to the cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition led by Muhyiddin Yassin.

Hishammuddin was born on 5 August 1961,[2] the fourth child and the eldest son of Hussein Onn, who became the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Suhaila Noah.

[9] In 2004, the Barisan Nasional government, now led by Abdullah Badawi, was returned to power with Hishammuddin holding the newly created seat of Sembrong.

His ascension to the party's vice-presidency in turn guaranteed him a senior Cabinet post,[10] and he was appointed Minister for Home Affairs.

[11] After the 2013 election, in which Najib's government suffered further losses, especially among Chinese voters, Hishammuddin recontested the UMNO vice-presidency.

[14] The Sydney Morning Herald criticised Hishammuddin in this position, arguing that he had "struggled during daily press briefings to defend his country’s handling of the search and investigation".

In response to concerns over the racial rhetoric, Vice-President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that "Although some sides were a bit extreme [this year], it is quite normal to voice feelings during the assembly.

[20] In 2008, Hishammuddin conceded that the act had caused the coalition to lose support among non-Malay voters in that year's general election.

[24] Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim criticised Hishammuddin for calling China a "big brother" during his joint address with his Chinese counterpart Minister Wang Yi.

[26][27] Former foreign minister Anifah Aman has told Hishammuddin to admit his error in making a "big brother" reference to China, instead of compounding the matter by disputing it.

[29][30] Syed Saddiq mentioned that the new rulings were unfair as they would be tantamount to taking equity from the non-bumiputeras and giving them to bumiputera.

[31] Ismail Sabri announced it after revealing that the government’s target to raise Bumiputera equity ownership to 30% had yet to be achieved.

They reside in Kuala Lumpur, the couple has two sons and two daughters (Kyra Arianna, Faris, Fahd, and Nasha Alyssa).

[9] On 22 February 2022, Hussein tested positive for COVID-19 and he had experienced "very mild" symptoms amid the Omicron infection surge in Malaysia.