Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trotted out his wife for a battleship workout in his latest PR stunt.
“No better way to start the day than morning PT with America’s Sailors and Marines,” Hegseth posted on X with a clip of himself, his wife Jennifer Rauchet, and a large troop of military personnel in training attire on the deck of the USS Boxer.
The video features Rauchet, who has never served in the military, jogging along the deck and doing a side plank. A separate batch of photos, shared by the Defense Department’s official X account, also shows her doing some sort of side-shuffle.
“It’s not me, it’s you guys!” Hegseth cheers in the video, addressing the service personnel performing the exercises with him.
“It’s because of what you do, and how you do it, that allows me to sit at a table and talk about American deterrence, and American strength,” he insisted.
Footage of the session shared by Fox News, where Hegseth previously worked, shows the secretary performing some awkward flutter kicks.
The workout is only the latest in a run of fitness videos Hegseth has posted since taking up his post in Donald Trump’s cabinet. He’s previously released footage of himself bench-pressing alongside his teenage son and exercising with Japan’s defense minister, among other clips.
Military officials have repeatedly complained in private about the amount of time the secretary appears to devote to such stunts and his public appearances in general, claiming he even installed a make-up room right next to where he briefs reporters at the Pentagon, which he has denied.
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rauche, a former TV producer who met Hegseth when they were both at Fox News, has also drawn complaints from staff for her frequent presence at the Pentagon, where the secretary has plastered the walls with pictures of himself and his wife.
She has no formal role in the department, and the White House has not confirmed whether she holds a security clearance.
She has nevertheless appeared at sessions with lawmakers and meetings with foreign officials, including a face-to-face with British Defense Secretary John Healey last March where sensitive matters of international security were discussed.
Hegseth is also alleged to have shared details of military strikes against Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen with Rauchet via a Signal group chat that also included his brother Phil and his lawyer, Tim Parlatore.
