Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earned mockery Monday over his fashion choices — and pointed questions about where his loyalties lie.
Hegseth stirred up an international reaction after he wore a white, blue and red striped tie similar to the order of the Russian flag during a meeting at the White House last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The Daily Beast on Monday.
Russian media apparently "were quick to draw conclusions that Hegseth was intentionally showing his allegiance to the Kremlin, despite the American flag displaying the same colors in a different order," The Beast reports.
The tie incident comes as reports of a heated private meeting between President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy, where Trump apparently repeated Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points and demanded Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Russia, reportedly saying, “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.”
The reactions online pointed to theories and criticism over Hegseth's and the U.S. relationship with Russia.
Tass, a Russian state-run news organization, described the tie as “Hegseth’s tie, featuring bold white, blue, and red stripes arranged in the same order as on the Russian national flag, stood out among the otherwise restrained attire of the US delegation."
"Pete Hegseth showed up to the White House meeting today with President Zelensky wearing a Russian tricolor flag tie. These people love Putin and Russia," political influencer Jake Broe wrote on X.
Kirill Dmitriev, who is the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Russia’s special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation, shared a Russian flag emoji on X with an image of Hegseth.
Vice President JD Vance responded to Broe's post, saying, "Or maybe he was wearing the colors of America," arguing that Hegseth was wearing a tie with America's flag.