Pentagon Pete made a surprise appearance at an event to honor a forgotten man of Trumpworld.
The self-anointed “Secretary of War” presided over the promotion of Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary, from the rank of commander to captain in the Navy Reserve.
Spicer, who appeared on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and became a Newsmax host after he departed from the first Trump administration, essentially vlogged the event, which was hosted at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia.
He shared an array of images and clips to his Instagram stories, with Hegseth more often than not front and center. Pentagon Pete, a week after yelling at military top brass about grooming and DEI, was seen at the celebration clutching his chest as a singer belted out the national anthem.
In a video posted by Capt. Spicer, Hegseth is heard calling him “one of the good guys.” Hegseth remarked, “[Spicer is] somebody whose heart and compass are in the right direction, and always have been.” The two men were then snapped facing one another and saluting as Spicer took the oath of office.
Spicer quit the first Trump White House, reportedly after the president appointed Wall Street banker Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. He stayed on briefly to help with the transition before officially departing in August 2017.
Spicer’s Navy action has been restricted to firing off emails, not bullets. His work has focused on public affairs and communications, not operational or combat roles.
In 1999, he was commissioned as a public affairs officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. In 2012, he earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College.
Over the years, he has supported the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and various Navy public affairs units, but always in an administrative capacity.
Hegseth’s appearance at Spicer’s ceremony comes after he put on his military fatigues for a new photo op. On Tuesday, he joined service members at the Florida-based U.S. Special Operations Command. “A day in the office w/ America’s finest,” he wrote on X afterwards.
The series of chest-beating images showed Hegseth wielding a rifle aboard a helicopter and getting down on the ground with the troops. Last month, Hegseth staged a similar cosplay stunt as he met with sailors and Marines off the coast of Puerto Rico to deliver a rousing message to the crew aboard USS Iwo Jima.
“You’re trained, you’re prepared, you’re ready, and you’re lethal. And the American people are counting on you to ensure the American homeland is kept safe,” he told service members.
His cringeworthy speech at Quantico last week saw him stoke quiet outrage after assembling top military officers at short notice for a bizarre pep talk in front of the cameras.
“Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department,” the former Fox News host ranted at one point, setting up his killer line: “In other words, to our enemies, FAFO. If necessary, our troops can translate that for you.”
“FAFO” is an acronym for “F--k around and find out.”
Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, with active-duty deployments to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He received two Bronze Star medals for meritorious service—not valor, as a now-deleted White House video tried to claim.
