Pete Hegseth brought his wife along on an out-of-town work trip after staff in his ranks leaked a brutal nickname they gave her.
Hegseth, 46, and his third wife, Jennifer, 49, joined the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets for early-morning physical training on Friday as part of a tour aimed at connecting with military cadets and veterans and promoting domestic manufacturing in the defense sector.
“There is NO better way to kick off the SEND ME TOUR than with early morning PT with the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets,” Hegseth wrote on X on Saturday, posting an image of him and Jennifer jogging up a staircase.
The self-anointed “secretary of war” donned a gray shirt that declared “This is War” as he delivered a cringeworthy pep talk to cadets standing at attention in a massive stadium.
“A department that’s focused on the basics, the warrior ethos. No more ideological garbage anymore, no more DEI garbage and social engineering. That’s all done,” he ranted. “We don’t do critical race theory. We don’t do DEI. We do colorblind, gender neutral, merit-based, merit only. Discipline, accountability, readiness, training, lethality, that’s it. If it doesn’t contribute to any of those things, we don’t want it.”
Hegseth put his photo with Jennifer front and center of his X post just a day after Defense Department staffers’ moniker for his wife became public.
Insiders told the Daily Mail that staffers have likened Jennifer to Yoko Ono, the widow of late Beatles legend John Lennon. Ono, whose relationship with Lennon began as an affair, sparked controversy for being fiercely protective of the musician and is often portrayed as a controlling figure who played a role in the band’s breakup.
“Now there’s a woman with an extremely tight leash on the man she married,” one source told the Mail.
“She’s like his parole officer and PR agent all at once,” another source said.
The couple met while both working at Fox News and began an affair in 2016. At the time, Hegseth was married to his second wife, Samantha Deering, with whom he shares three children: Gunner, 16; Peter Boone, 14; and Rex, 10.
Hegseth and Jennifer had a daughter, Gwendolyn, in 2017—the same year Deering filed for divorce. Jennifer took Hegseth’s last name after they married in 2019. She has three children from a previous marriage.
Jennifer has become closely involved in her husband’s professional life since he rose to the helm of the Defense Department. The New York Times previously revealed that Jennifer is ever-present at her husband’s side because the embattled defense secretary, who has repeatedly been accused of heavy drinking, counts on her to keep him out of trouble.
More than a dozen current and former administration officials and sources close to Jennifer told the Times that she has been serving as the defense secretary’s most influential adviser, prepping him for appearances, sitting in on his meetings with journalists, interviewing potential staff members, and even helping brainstorm ideas for Defense Department videos.
The Pentagon has stood by the defense secretary’s wife amid the controversy.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell described Jennifer as “an accomplished leader in her own right and a devoted military spouse.”
“She is a vital asset and a true force multiplier for our mission,” he said in a statement to the Mail. “Because of her exceptional capability and the profound impact of her work, the Department of War not only welcomes her current leadership but actively plans to involve her even more deeply in the future. She is simply that valuable to our community and our nation.”
