'Pentagon princess': Pete Hegseth under fire again for spending huge money for makeup studio

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired back at a report claiming he ordered a room near the Pentagon press briefing room to be equipped with a makeup studio to be used for TV hits. The modifications were reportedly set to cost around $40,000, but were scaled back.

Pete Hegseth is being called "Pentagon Princess” online after he reportedly requested that a makeup studio be installed at the Pentagon. The former Fox News host is facing calls to resign in the aftermath of the Signal group chat blunder, in which a journalist for The Atlantic was accidentally added into a channel where plans for a military strike against the Houthis in Yemen were being discussed.

Hegseth denies studio makeup report

Pete Hegseth has fired back at a report he ordered a makeup studio installed in the Pentagon, ostensibly to touch him and other officials up for TV hits. While the Defense Department acknowledged that it made upgrades to the Green Room adjacent to the Pentagon Briefing Room, Hegseth, 44, took issue with a CBS News report that the area was set aside for military primping.


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“1) Totally fake story. No ‘orders’ and no ‘makeup’ — but whatever. 2) We should have installed tampon machines in every men’s bathroom at DoD instead — the leftist ‘news’ media would have loved that,” Hegseth fumed on X Wednesday evening.

CBS reported that an in-house construction crew renovated the adjacent green room earlier this year. The room previously had minimal furnishings — a table with chairs, a TV, photos of former defense secretaries and a mirror on the back of the door, one source said.

The table was removed and a new chair and large mirror with makeup lighting was installed, another source said. Hegseth is doing his own makeup ahead of TV appearances, not paying for a makeup artist, a defense official told CBS News.

“Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration,” a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement. CBS reported that the Pentagon initially eyed a $40,000 remodeling plan for the Green Room before scaling it back.

A spokesperson told The Post that officials received an initial estimate of $10,000-$15,000, but “did not pursue those options” and instead spent “a few hundred dollars to cut, stain, and install a wooden countertop in the room.”

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“The Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs recently upgraded a space known informally as the ‘Green Room,’ to offer senior leaders and VIPs a place to prepare prior to press engagements before appearing on television,” the spokesperson added.

“Most of the changes in the Green Room were recycled furniture modifications–a director’s style chair, mirror, and a makeup light—all of which were added from existing inventories. A countertop was added and constructed internally.”

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The Defense Department’s “Rapid Response” published an image of the revamped facility, asking: “Does the fake news NOT have anything better to do?”

Hegseth’s tenure as Defense secretary has been marred by what one Pentagon official described as “chaos.”

On Monday, The New York Times reported that Hegseth shared plans about upcoming airstrikes with his wife, brother, and lawyer via Signal, an encrypted messaging app. Last month, The Atlantic reported that Hegseth shared the same plans with more than a dozen government officials in a group chat on the Signal messaging app. And last week, Hegseth lost four staffers. The secretary has responded in each case by yelling at the media.