Hey, if you’re a National Guard soldier stationed in Chicago and you’re not ethically okay with it, just visit the city’s delicious Italian beef, hot dog, and pizza stands as often as possible.

During the weekend, Task and purpose – a news website focused on the American military community – reported that the Texas Military Department replaced “a small group” of National Guard members sent to Illinois last week for failing to meet with the Secretary of Defense. Pete HegsethThe new fitness standards.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

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Late last month, Hegseth and Trump gathered all the top American generals and admirals from around the world in Virginia to essentially declare that they did not want There are no fat people in the army anymore..

Task & Purpose noted that the decision appears to have been made after a Reddit post riddled with fatphobic jokes He brutally mocked a handful of Texas soldiers deployed in Chicago who appeared in a photograph taken by the News.

Military personnel in uniform, wearing the Texas National Guard patch, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Elwood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Military personnel in uniform, wearing the Texas National Guard patch, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Elwood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

via News

Hegseth was so excited about the elimination of these soldiers that he tweeted the Take & Force article on Monday, along with a rather boastful caption:

“Standards are back at @DeptofWar,” he wrote, referring to his own department that President Donald Trump wants to rename the Department of War. for some stupid scary reasons.

And although some X users had some pretty solid replicas to the seat of Hegseth, the governor of California. Gavin NewsomThe office may have had the best.

In retweeting Hegseth’s post, Newsom included a video montage showing the Secretary of Defense demonstrating that he may not meet his own fitness standards. It starts with Hegseth failing to do a full pull-up, then shows him throwing an ax well above his intended target. Then he kicks him in the balls with a skateboard.

This was not the first time Newsom’s office pointed out how hypocritical Hegseth and Trump sounded when they disparaged military members for not physically resembling the Ninja Turtles. Shortly after September’s grievance fest about military fitness, Newsom’s office retweeted a video of Hegseth saying the following to military leaders:

“Frankly, it’s exhausting to look at combat formations (or any formation, really) and see fat troops,” Hegseth complained. “Likewise, it is completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It is a bad image.”

Newsom then added a very unflattering photo of Trump and wrote the caption:

“I guess the Commander-in-Chief has to go!”