Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense. Photo:
Kiyoshi Ota/Pool/Getty
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered the Pentagon to install a makeup studio that could cost thousands of dollars, multiple sources told CBS News on Wednesday, April 23.
The makeup studio will be added to the Pentagon’s Press Room area. The original estimate for the plan was over $40,000, but the idea was “scaled back,” sources told CBS News.
Tami Radabaugh, the deputy assistant to Hegseth for strategic engagement, suggested the improvements, sources told CBS News. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell and Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Rauchet, also reportedly approved the upgrade, despite the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures. Radabaugh and Rauchet are both former Fox News producers.
“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.
In a further response to the report, the Pentagon’s Rapid Response X account called it “trash.” They also claimed there is “no lighted mirror,” that the changes “didn’t cost thousands,” and “The items that were added to the GREEN ROOM (not a makeup studio) came from existing inventory.”
The adjacent green room was renovated earlier this year. A source told CBS News that a larger mirror was added, along with more optimal lighting for applying makeup. The upgraded room will be available to senior leaders ahead of press engagements.
Hegseth previously served as a morning host on Fox & Friends Weekend and has been doing his own makeup for press engagements.
Hegseth has yet to address reporters in the White House Press room, but continues to appear on Fox News. He recently blamed the media for revealing his leaked messages that detailed the Trump administration’s war plans via Signal chat. Signal is not classified, and thus can be hacked.
The Signal chat was revealed when a member of the group appeared to accidentally add The Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Hegseth was found texting Vice President J.D. Vance about a military operation to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen.
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Earlier this week, CBS News and The New York Times reported Hegseth shared details about U.S. airstrikes in Yemen in a private Signal group that included his wife, brother and personal attorney, citing sources familiar with the messages. The messages were sent on March 15, the same day Hegseth shared similar details in the Signal chat that included Goldberg.
Rauchet has no role in the Pentagon and reportedly joined Hegseth on official foreign trips and attended meetings with international leaders, according to a March Wall Street Journal report.
The Department of Defense has claimed that “no classified information” has been shared in a Signal chat.
“There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story,” Parnell wrote on social media on Sunday. “What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump’s agenda.”
In March 2025, a source told PEOPLE exclusively that President Donald Trump “has asked people around him what they think about both Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz and assesses their opinions.”
“In the end, he usually makes up his own mind about what, if anything, he plans to do,” the source continued. “The Signal scandal is no different. Ideally, he wants it to go away.”
