Hating drag queens and insisting on traditional gender roles is a Republican article of faith at this point.
So why is far-right MAGA Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has tried to kick trans people out of the military, demanding that a makeup studio be added to the Pentagon press briefing room for him?
Making rules that don't apply to them is also a MAGA article of faith, of course, but still—there hasn't been a man this obsessed with makeup since... well, Donald Trump himself, really.
Anyway, he's since denied it, but it has been credibly reported via leakers within the Trump administration that Hegseth had a room next to the briefing room remodeled into his own personal makeup studio—to the tune of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
This expenditure came amidst the sweeping budget cuts to basically every aspect of government and public services in the name of supposed "fiscal responsibility," of course.
News site HuffPost reported that the Department of Defense confirmed the transformation of the room to them, but in a post on X, it angrily denied most of the details with the kind of petulance usually reserved for schoolchildren.
Admittedly, the room does look like just a basic green room, though the DOD's photo only shows one quarter of the room, so we really don't have much to go on here.
We could take the DOD's word for it, of course, but the wording and tone of their tweet make it very obvious the "makeup studio" reports have REALLY gotten under their skin. You know what they say about those who doth protest too much!
Powerful, masculine Hegseth himself was similarly melodramatic about the whole thing, using a post about it on X to get all butthurt about tampons, for some reason.
Very strong, soldier-like behavior precisely in line with the kind of even-tempered strength for which our military is famous.
As you might guess, the internet had a field day making fun of Hegseth for his supposed makeup demands.
Mr. Hegseth, if you're reading this, we apologize for snarking about your makeup studio. You are still very, very butch and a paragon of masculinity with expertly applied foundation.
@jaylauscher/X
@ChrisPorter22/X
