Pete Hegseth Brings Warrior Ethos Back to the Pentagon With New Makeup Studio

You can take the DUI hire out of the TV studio but you can't take the TV studio out of the DUI hire.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent thousands of dollars to turn a Pentagon room into a makeup studio amidst an administration that says it’s cutting costs. Honestly, this goes hand in hand with Trump's television presidency.

Hegseth gave the unnecessary and costly makeover to the green room next to the Pentagon press briefing room, probably so he doesn't sweat through his powder on the walk over.

These absolutely asinine changes happen all while Trump and Musk enact deep, painful, life-ruining cuts to department programs and staff, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to root out wasteful spending. This makeup room isn't wasteful, though - the Founding Fathers probably had a wig powdering room.

The Pentagon defended Hegseth’s decision to install the makeup studio, calling the renovation “routine.”

“Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration,” a Defense Department spokesperson said, with a straight face to news cameras, feet away from empty desks and offices that once held faithful government employees that were cut as "waste".

One source at the Pentagon said that the room was originally sparsely furnished with a table, chairs, a mirror on the back of the door, a TV, and photos of former defense secretaries on the wall. All of that was tossed when an in-house construction crew came in, removed everything, and replaced the previous furniture with a new director’s chair and a large mirror with makeup lights.

The improvements, which reportedly cost thousands of dollars, came at a time when the administration was looking to cut costs, resulting in thousands of federal workers losing their jobs and major budget cuts were slashed from many programs and departments.

Hegseth himself has played an important role in these cuts, signing a memo in March titled “Continuing Elimination of Wasteful Spending at the Department of Defense,” which terminated over $580 million in “wasteful spending” on the department’s contracts and grants. More money for setting powder and bronzer, I guess.

In a video posted to Twitter, he said, with a straight face, how these contracts and grants were “not a good use of taxpayer dollars.”

“Ultimately, that’s who funds us, and we owe you transparency and making sure we’re using it well,” he added, with perfectly contoured cheeks, meticulously plucked brows, and carefully slicked back hair.

“For this upgrade, we were deliberately conservative and opted for several less expensive, on-hand material solutions,” a Defense Department’s spokesperson said.

According to them, the new items came from existing inventories, and the new countertop was built by facilities services staff. What department had a director's chair and a Sephora's worth of Kylie Cosmetics lying around??

Former Fox News and CBS News producer Tami Radabaugh, who is currently the deputy assistant to the secretary for strategic engagement, was the one to suggest these renovations. According to a source, she got the go-ahead from Hegseth’s wife, as well as the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell.

Hegseth has been under scrutiny ever since “Signalgate” in March, and faces yet another data security scandal after it was revealed that he shared sensitive information about upcoming military strikes in Yemen in another group chat with his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, among others. He also, damningly, had the unapproved app saved onto his GOVERNMENT WORK COMPUTER.

These never-ending scandals come after he fired three handpicked top aides from his department and reassigned his chief of staff, Joe Kasper, last week.

They probably bought the wrong concealer.