Jenny Hegseth, Wife of DOD Secretary Pete, Exercises With Sailors and Marines on Deck of the USS Boxer Wearing Camo Shorts & Sweaty T-Shirt

Aug 23, 2026 06:02 PM EDT, Sun

Former Pentagon spokesperson describes Jennifer Hegseth’s expansive role as ‘bonkers’

“It’s bonkers that a defense secretary would involve his wife in his sensitive official duties,” John Ullyot said in reference to Pete Hegseth’s spouse.

Aug. 20, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT By Steve Benen

Throughout American history, plenty of defense secretaries have been married, but none have taken on roles similar to Secretary Pete Hegseth’s third wife, Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth, whose expansive portfolio continues to raise eyebrows at the Pentagon.

The first indication that we were dealing with an unusual dynamic emerged just two months into Hegseth’s tenure, when The Wall Street Journal reported that the defense secretary had brought his wife “to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.” A month later, the public learned that Hegseth used his personal phone to send highly specific details about an imminent U.S. military strike to a 13-person Signal group chat, which also included his wife.

A week later, The Washington Post reported that Hegseth’s wife had supplanted media-engagement professionals employed by the Defense Department and started informing the secretary’s staff about his scheduled media interviews.

Earlier this month, Donald Trump announced that Jennifer Hegseth — who, like her husband, used to work at Faux News — would also lead a new commission focused on improving the lives of military spouses and families.

As The New York Times reported this week, “There has never been a Pentagon spouse quite like Jennifer Hegseth.” From the article:

Jenny & Pete Hegseth Exercise with Navy & Marines on Deck of USS Boxer

In May she was in camouflage shorts and a sweat-drenched T-shirt that said “This Is War” working out with sailors, Marines and her husband, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, on the deck of the U.S.S. Boxer in Singapore. In June she and six of the couple’s seven children accompanied Mr. Hegseth to the D-Day commemoration in Normandy, where a Defense Department promotional video with a swelling, cinematic soundtrack captured husband and wife walking arm in arm on Omaha Beach. The imagery seemed to cast her as the first lady of the Pentagon.

The article added that Jennifer Hegseth is Pete Hegseth’s “most influential adviser and his de facto producer at the Pentagon. She has prepped him for appearances, sat in on his meetings with journalists, interviewed potential members of his staff and brainstormed ideas for the Defense Department videos he — and sometimes she — appears in.”

John Ullyot, a former Pentagon chief spokesperson who stepped down last year after three months of working under Hegseth, told the Times, “It’s bonkers that a defense secretary would involve his wife in his sensitive official duties, including sharing details of an impending military operation, and face zero consequences.”

While the secretary’s wife didn’t respond to the Times’ request for comment, a Pentagon spokesperson described Jennifer Hegseth as “a vital asset and a true force multiplier for our mission.” The Defense Department, the spokesperson added, “not only welcomes her current leadership but actively plans to involve her even more deeply in the future.”

In other words, those with concerns about her role at the Pentagon should expect matters to get considerably worse.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

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