California Gov. Gavin Newsom is roasting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth again in a hilarious social media post showing videos of Hegseth’s fitness failures. In the clips Hegseth struggles to do a pull-up, completely misses the mark in an axe throw and strikes himself in the groin with a skateboard.
His latest jab at Hegseth comes after the secretary demanded the replacement of Texas National Guard troops deployed to Chicago last week following a viral video of a few heavy troops arriving on the city’s South Side.
The Texas Military Department replaced the service members, and Hegseth gleefully approved the move in a social post on X declaring, “Standards are back at The @DeptofWar [Department of War]” above a a story from Task & Purpose on the troop replacement.
Newsom posted the hysterical 7-second montage in response to Hegseth’s own vicious remark about overweight troops.
Newsom’s clapback lit up social media and they weren’t playing fair.
“What a f-cking embarrassment,” another proclaimed.
“I can do a better pull up than you. I’m a grandma and 65,” another poster hilariously claimed.
Even voters who don’t support Newsom admire his attacks on Trump and his cronies.
“I loathe Gavin Newsom but it boggles the mind that he and his team are the only ones posting good content like this. Democrats need to step up their game bigly,” an X user said.
“HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah..,real alpha male energy right there,” another chimed in.
Still another used one word in reacting to Newsom’s post showing a goofy Hegseth, “Insane.”
And if Hegseth needed to hear the insults directly from Newsom, there was another video on deck.
Author and political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen shared a clip of Newsom on his podcast doing a straight-faced takedown of Hegseth, “Pete Hegseth’s a joke. He’s a joke. Everybody knows he’s so in over his head. What an embarrassment. That guy’s weakness masquerading as strength.”
In reaction to the photos of the overweight troops, the National Guard Bureau said in a statement that National Guard soldiers and airmen “are required to meet service-specific height, weight and physical fitness standards at all times,” according to The Hill.
“When mobilizing for active duty, members go through a validation process to ensure they meet those requirements,” according to the statement. “On the rare occasions when members are found not in compliance, they will not go on mission. They will be returned to their home station, and replacements who do meet standards will take their places.”
The troop replacement follows Hegseth’s speech last month to the nation’s top military brass, where he emphasized the Pentagon would begin enforcing strict physical fitness standards not only for troops but for military leaders as well.
“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” he said at the time. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country and the world.”
Newsom has been trolling and mocking top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration for months now in the same Trumpian style of using all caps and signing his posts with his initials. And some of the funny posts, especially the ones about Vice President JD Vance, have really been getting to the administration and angering thin-skinned Republicans.
