President Donald Trump offered glowing praise of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday while speaking at an event for military moms.

Trump introduced the people in the room, cracking jokes about his allies in the room as he often does.

“With us as Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, my friend, who’s done such a fantastic job, wherever you are, Linda. Oh, hi, Linda—she’s great. What a job!” Trump began before pivoting to Hegseth:

Along with Jennifer Hegseth. Jennifer, hi Jennifer. He’s doing some job, I’ll tell you. He’s doing a job, you know? He stood up. He was the only one standing up in the ballroom the other day at the event at the White House. And we go out—they go out to the White House dinner, you know? They were saying, “Can you use…?”
Well, when you use that term, I guess you probably can use it. But we had a little dinner the other night, and your husband was standing on top of a table. Everyone else was under the table. So that’s what we want of our Secretary of War, right? We want somebody—but he was standing at the top of the table, everyone else was under the damn table. Anyway, he’s doing a fantastic job. He and the General—those are great news conferences. We like them. They work very well together, I can tell you. The wife of Pete Hegseth—and say hello to Pete,

Michelle Ratcliffe. Michelle, where is Michelle? I think she’s here someplace. Michelle. And the wife of CIA Director John Ratcliffe. And Jackie Emmer. Jackie, you are so great. Jack, I know Jackie well because her husband and I—we didn’t know each other; we fought. You know, in politics you can fight. And then when we got to know each other, we love each other, right? But she always liked Trump. And she convinced her husband, who’s a big power in the House—she convinced our husband that Trump was much better than he thought. And I remember you; I like you. Now I really like him. He’s incredible, but I like you more than I always do, because you were there long before him, right?

Trump’s full-throated praise of Hegseth is notable given speculation in the media that he may be one of the officials falling out of Trump’s good graces. Hegseth’s name has been floated alongside DNI Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as the officials most likely to be headed for the exit next.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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