Hegseth orders makeup studio installed at Pentagon [View all]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: April 23, 2025 / 8:02 PM EDT


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently ordered modifications to a room next to the Pentagon press briefing room to retrofit it with a makeup studio that can be used to prepare for television appearances, multiple sources told CBS News. The price tag for the project was several thousand dollars, according to two of the sources, at a time when the administration is searching for cost-cutting measures.

"Changes and upgrades to the Pentagon Briefing Room are nothing new and routinely happen during changes in an administration," a Defense Department spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. The renovation that was initially planned was estimated to cost more than $40,000, but the ideas were scaled back, sources said. After CBS News published its report, the defense secretary responded in a post on X, "Totally fake story. No 'orders' and no 'makeup.'"

Hegseth, before becoming defense secretary, was a morning show co-host on Fox News' "Fox & Friends Weekend." Since his nomination, he has vowed to emphasize improvements in the armed forces' warfighting abilities and military readiness. 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. The suggestion for improving the space came from Tami Radabaugh, the deputy assistant to the secretary for strategic engagement and a former producer for Fox News and for CBS News, according to multiple sources. The chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, and the defense secretary's wife, Jennifer Hegseth, also a former Fox producer, expressed their approval for the upgrade before it was undertaken, one of the sources said.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-orders-makeup-studio-installed-pentagon/