Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stopped a speech in South Carolina on Monday to explain why he was sweating like a “son of a b****.”
Hegseth had been addressing service members at the newly renamed Joint Base Lindsey Graham, previously been known as Joint Base Charleston. While delivering the speech, he began running his hands through his hair before making the remark.
“By the way, I’m a Norwegian from Minnesota so I sweat like a son of a b****,” he said, drawing laughter from attendees. “This is South Carolina in August.”
Hegseth continued to run his hands through his hair while speaking in the August heat.
At the same event, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addressed listeners, Hegseth appeared to wipe his nose before touching his hair once again.
Like much of the country, Charleston has been experiencing high temperatures. According to the National Weather Service, the area experienced maximum temperatures of 95F on Monday.
Hegseth has often mentioned his Norwegian heritage, with the now-defense secretary having his DNA test results revealed live on-air during an episode of Fox and Friends.
The results of the MyHeritage test showed that Hegseth is 96.4 percent Scandinavian; 2 percent Irish, Scottish and Welsh; and 1.6 percent Northern and Western European.
“Nailed it,” Hegseth said upon the unveiling of the results.
“I love it,” he also remarked, after he was told that he is “mega-Norwegian.”
Despite his references to his European background, though, Hegseth has repeatedly slammed the continent during the second Trump administration.
During a speech commemorating the 82nd anniversary of D-Day in June, he claimed that European beaches are being “stormed by different, dangerous ideologies.”
“Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive,” he said. “When will European capitals do something about that invasion?”
That same month, Hegseth suggested at a NATO meeting in Brussels that some of the U.S.'s NATO allies have been “free-riding.”
