&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "‘She has no official role’: Questions mount after Hegseth’s wife attended sensitive Pentagon meeting on Ukraine")
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife attended a sensitive Pentagon meeting involving British officials and discussions about the risks facing UK personnel in Ukraine. Her presence at the high-level gathering has raised questions.
Jennifer Rauchet, who had no official role in the Trump administration at the time, attended the meeting only for introductions, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told The Times in response to its report published on Wednesday (Aug 19). British officials reportedly waited for Rauchet to leave before discussing their officers stationed in Ukraine in greater detail, according to the newspaper.
The meeting included senior British officials, including the then-head of the UK armed forces. The Wall Street Journal had previously reported on Rauchet’s attendance in March 2025, but The Times reported that the gathering also involved discussions about British personnel operating on the ground in Ukraine amid the war with Russia.
The episode has drawn criticism from former Pentagon officials. John Ullyot, who previously served as the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told The Times that it was “bonkers” for a defence secretary to involve his wife in sensitive official duties.
Ullyot also argued that US President Donald Trump “deserves better judgment from his national security leaders” and questioned why Hegseth had faced no apparent consequences over Rauchet’s presence at sensitive meetings.
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He also referred to other controversies involving Hegseth, including the Signal group chat incident last year in which senior Trump administration officials discussed planned US strikes on Yemen in a group that accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief.
The Pentagon pushed back against Ullyot’s criticism. Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez accused him of attacking Hegseth after leaving the administration, calling his comments embarrassing. Valdez also shared a post by Donald Trump J., who had previously said Ullyot was “officially exiled from our movement” after he left the Pentagon in April 2025.
