Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took an opportunity to showcase his expert-level trolling abilities in an X post published on August 31, 2026 and the social media platform hasn’t stopped talking about it since. Of course, several media outlets covering his post decided to put a negative spin on it, noting that his Army Secretary left the position on the same day.
A report from Mediaite also slammed Hegseth for making some heavy cuts to military leadership over the last several months, while ripping into him over his display of humor and wit. The secretary posted a screenshot from the Instagram account of the Vernon Cadet Training Centre, which showed a rather happy cadet grinning from ear-to-ear while shaking hands with an instructor while being awarded a medal.
Hegseth included a caption that featured a Canadian flag along with a short message reading, “(This is real).” He published the post at 9:08 p.m. By the next morning it had garnered over 4.2 million views, which shows the depths of Hegseth’s reach on social media. If you’re wondering what makes the post so funny, it’s that the instructor is a very overweight woman, while the cadet looks to be in fairly good shape.
A user immediately commented on the post that the cadets are usually children between the ages of 12 to 17 and that the woman on the right is probably a volunteer instructor. The left had a complete and total meltdown over the post, with the editor of MeidasTouch commenting, “Just a vile, insecure scumbag and a disgrace to the US military.”
“Am I seeing this right. Is the US secretary of defence trying to shame cadets in Vernon? These are cadets, high school kids. How dare you be such a complete *sshole to imply this is our military, and shame on you for body shaming our young people. This is reprehensible,” Canadian journalist Terry Reith said in a post on X responding to Hegseth’s trolling.
According to Mediaite, the post even reached the eyes of a member from the Canadian House of Commons, who responded to it by reminding the secretary of the history of the partnership between the U.S. and Canada, as both nations continue to be involved in a bitter trade war, which resulted in President Donald Trump changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
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“Cadets do great work, and are not members of the military. 158 members of the Canadian military gave their lives in Afghanistan after your country was attacked. Canada and the US have a great history of fighting together for freedom and justice. It’s history worth remembering,” Garnett Genuis said in his response on X.
Not everyone in the comment section was against Hegseth’s epic joke. “Pete, calm down! I see it. I see it clearly. I see the double quarter pounder with cheese and pòutine it took to make that jelly roll get a medal for just turning up. Does she have time to go to the gym to fit in that calorie lifestyle she has there?” one user wisecracked.
Watch Hegseth cause a meltdown on CNN here: