Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that he has seen the social media chatter about him running beside “the Hulk,” and is taking it in stride.
The post Exclusive–Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Responds to Viral Photo of Him Running with ‘the Hulk’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Breitbart News in a recent exclusive interview that he has seen the social media chatter about the photo of him running beside “the Hulk,” and is taking it in stride.
“Yeah, I saw the guy that I was running with — the real-life Hulk,” he said. “He looks like me if I ate spinach or something. I mean, the guy’s a beast.”
Hegseth’s first international trip to Europe this week started off with physical training, or “PT” in military-speak, with members of the 10th Special Forces Group stationed at Stuttgart, Germany.
Photos of that PT session went viral, particularly one of Hegseth running behind a smiling soldier of a much larger stature.
Social media users dubbed the guy “the Tank” or “the Unit” and some turned the image of him and the defense secretary running into funny memes.
Hegseth said he did not want to reveal the soldier’s name, but said he was one of the leaders of 10th Group.
“He’s just a beast, and I hope he’s internet famous beyond his dreams, because that’s the kind of image I want of what the American military looks like — not me barely surviving behind him trying to survive 10th group PT,” he said.
“But I’m glad that’s a visual that people have of our military,” he said. “We want fit-to-fight guys and gals ready to go.”
Hegseth recently highlighted another soldier on his X account, with the message, “Stronger people are harder to kill – Fact.”
“That guy’s an example of that,” he said.
Hegseth later in the week during his visit to Warsaw, Poland, also ran with U.S. Marines stationed at the U.S. Embassy there. He and the Marines went running in the frigid Polish winter weather, just after the city received a light dusting of snow.
“It was awesome to do PT with the troops. We’re gonna keep doing that. That’s not a one-off,” he said. “It gives you a chance to talk to guys and gals in an unscripted way. They can give you some feedback.”
Hegseth, a retired Army major and combat veteran, has made restoring the warrior ethos in the military his top priority, a major departure from the Biden administration’s focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
He told Breitbart News that the best part of the job is spending time with the troops, and seeing the impact on the morale of “getting back to basics.”
He said he has had men and women coming up to him from all ranks and “just saying thank you, thank you to President Trump for having the courage to stand up.”
“The recruiting numbers — we call it the Trump effect and it’s true — a commander chief who has their back really, really matters,” he said.
“So that’s been cool to see those numbers, but it’s more it’s been even cooler to see the faces of the people who are willing to stay in, signing up for the first time, the emails and letters that we get saying, ‘We’re inspired by President Trump and by your leadership and we we want to join.’”
He also praised the professionalism of the U.S. military.
“I also will have to say, the professionalism of the uniformed class of our military is something very special to America,” Hegseth said, adding:
There’s civilian leadership. President Trump was elected. He picked his appointed cabinet members who are now the civilian leadership of the largest military in the world. That military has a decision whether it wants to follow those lawful orders or not, and we have a special system where, by and large, the vast majority of those uniform members salute and say, let’s execute.
“That’s pretty cool, and that’s very special. And I appreciate them.”
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