US secretary of war Pete Hegseth appeared to mock the appearance of a uniformed woman featured in a Canadian cadet post on Tuesday, sharing her image on X with a Canadian flag and the words: “(this is real)”.
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The image, originally posted by the cadets.vernon Instagram account, showed the woman in Canadian military camouflage standing alongside another person in cadet attire. Hegseth did not explain what he meant or make any explicit reference to her weight. However, the post was widely interpreted as a weight-related jibe given his repeated use of the phrase “fit not fat” while pushing tougher physical standards in the US military.
