Democrats on Wednesday skewered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the reported refurbishing of a room in the Pentagon, which was turned into a makeup studio for senior officials to get ready for on-camera appearances.
According to CBS News, which first reported on the room, sources said the project’s cost was thousands of dollars.
A Defense official told The Hill on Wednesday in an email that “changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an Administration.”
“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 official said.
“Most of the changes in the Green Room were furniture modifications — a director’s style chair, mirror, and a makeup light — all of which were added from existing inventories,” the official added.
The official said a countertop was constructed for the room but added the Pentagon was “deliberately conservative and opted for several less expensive, on-hand materiel solutions” for the project.
Democrats quickly took to social media to mock the Defense secretary, who has been beating back criticism for sharing sensitive military plans in private Signal chat groups.
“Only makeup that our Sec Def should be putting on,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said Wednesday in a post on the social platform X, featuring a GIF of Arnold Schwarzenegger painting black stripes on his body in the movie “Predator.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also took a swing at Hegseth.
“Sources say his favorite makeup products at the Pentagon are concealer and coverup,” Schumer said in a post on X.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) in a post on X referenced a series of emojis used in a Signal group chat in which top Trump officials accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, but added a lipstick emoji.
The Defense Department pushed back on the CBS report of changes to the Pentagon room in a post on X, saying that they “didn’t cost thousands” and that “items that were added to the GREEN ROOM (not a makeup studio) came from existing inventory.”
CBS News reported that the Pentagon room was revamped recently via an in-house construction crew, with a source saying that it was sparsely furnished with a table and chairs, a TV, former Pentagon leaders’ pictures and a mirror prior to the change. A different source told the outlet that changes to the room included a new chair, the addition of a mirror featuring makeup lighting and the removal of a table.
“Nothing screams warrior culture more than a makeup studio,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said in a post on X.
“Hegseth was derelict in his duties by repeatedly using his personal phone to disclose ongoing combat operations, and is now wasting taxpayer dollars. How does a makeup studio at Pentagon help troops? He needs to resign.”
The Hill has reached out to the Defense Department for comment.
