Pete Hegseth’s wife is waging her own war on wokeness.
Jenny Hegseth, the Secretary of War’s third wife, held the inaugural meeting of the Military Spouse Commission at the White House on Monday, a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the commission and naming Jenny as its leader.
The commission is billed as a group that will advise the president and make recommendations to improve the quality of life for military families. Other members include the wives of the secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and other key military roles. But despite women making up about 18 percent of active-duty service members, just one man, Doniel Wolfe, the spouse of the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, appears to be in the comission.
Pete Hegseth, who joined the inaugural meeting as a guest, acknowledged as much during his brief remarks.
“A lot of things that need to happen in our department happen with the stroke of a pen from either your husbands…..[or]...up at the office of the Secretary of War level; and we are prepared to wield that pen,” he told the women, appearing to insinuate that women are not making decisions at the Department of Defense.
A Department of Defense spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions from the Daily Beast.
Jenny Hegseth, for her part, told her fellow commission members that they would work alongside Trump to “improve the lives of America’s nearly 1 million military spouses.”
“And as you know firsthand, military spouses make a sacrifice for our nation together with the sacrifice of your warrior,” she said.
Jenny Hegseth said that the commission would address issues presented by its members, such as employment, housing, and health care. However, she did not address some of the issues that male military spouses have specifically raised.
David Carrera, the 2020 Armed Forces Insurance Navy Spouse of the Year, for example, previously told Militaryspouse.com that one of the “greatest challenges” for male spouses is the lack of community on bases and duty stations.
“The one thing male military spouses lack is a way to connect. I think there should be a Manpendent type of group at every base and duty station,” he said at the time.
The lack of gender-diverse representation in the spouse commission comes as Hegseth has struck down promotions for female and minority service members.
Pete Hegseth, who never achieved a rank higher than major, has fired or blocked promotions for some 80 of the nation’s top officers—roughly 10 percent of the U.S. military’s highest-ranking officers.
At the same time, the secretary, who has faced scrutiny over his drinking and alleged affairs during and between his three marriages, directly contradicts his war on diversity, equity, and inclusion. His own top adviser is reportedly a woman: his wife.
The former Fox News producer, who began her romance with Pete while he was a married host at the network, was described by one Pentagon official as having a “very heavy hand and one of his closest advisers with access inside the building, which is very unusual for a secretary of war/secretary of defense,” the Times of London reported in August.
