Embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth apparently learned something from his days as a presenter on Fox News — the importance of being camera-ready.
Amid reports of infighting and chaos at the Pentagon, and with the secretary under fire for a second breach of operational security, CBS News reports that Hegseth recently ordered modifications to a room next to the department’s press briefing room to turn it into a make-up studio.
Citing multiple sources, the network says the project cost several thousand dollars, at a time when Donald Trump’s administration is supposed to be focused on cost-cutting.
A Defense Department spokesperson told CBS News in a statement: “Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration.”
According to a source who spoke to CBS, an in-house construction crew renovated the briefing room’s adjacent green room earlier this year. It previously had minimal furnishings, comprising a table and chairs, a TV, photos of former defense secretaries, and a mirror on the back of the door.
Another source said the table was removed and a new chair and a large mirror with makeup lighting were installed.
The Pentagon spokesperson said the room will be available to senior leaders and VIPs ahead of press engagements and that the new items came from existing inventory, with a new countertop built by facilities staff.
“For this upgrade, we were deliberately conservative and opted for several less expensive, on-hand materiel solutions,” the spokesperson told CBS.
The network reports that, according to multiple sources, the idea for making over the green room came from Tami Radabaugh, the deputy assistant to the secretary for strategic engagement and a former producer for Fox News and for CBS News.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, and Jennifer Hegseth, the defense secretary's wife — also a former Fox producer — expressed approval for the work, one of the sources said.
While Hegseth has not used the briefing room to address or take questions from reporters, it has been used as a set for TV appearances, including a recent interview on Fox & Friends in which he blamed former Pentagon employees and the media for revealing the most recent security breach in which he sent sensitive military information to his wife, brother, and lawyer on a Signal group chat.
Notably, Hegseth did not deny the reports that he shared operational information with his family and close associates about strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
It was the second such incident this year after National Security Adviser Michael Waltz accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in a Signal group chat of government officials in which Hegseth shared strike times and details of the military operation.
He maintains that he did not share classified information in either case.
Hegseth, a combat veteran, was a morning show co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend before being nominated and confirmed as Trump’s defense secretary — a controversial process amid allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and alcohol issues that he denied.
When speaking about his focus at the Pentagon, he has emphasized making improvements in warfighting abilities and military readiness to “revive the warrior ethos.”
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