Pete Hegseth viral fart White House video sparks debate online. Photo: WHite House/X.
A video showing US war secretary Pete Hegseth farting during a live press conference at White House is going viral. The video claims that Hegseth passed gas during the public address related to the Iran war on Monday, April 6. Hegseth was speaking about the daring rescue operation that the US military launched to get back its pilots from Iran.
NewsX could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. Even social media is divided on the nature of video. Some believe the video is AI-generated, while others claim it is genuine.
The video is drawing a wide range of reactions on social media. While some users just shared the video to confirm its authenticity, others reacted with memes and humorous takes.
“Fart is the strongest bomb,” one X user wrote.
“Now every time he looks up at the camera like that, we can assume he’s basically pooping himself,” another user added.
Some users even called him “Secretary of Fart.”
The reaction from the Embassy of Kenya has caught the attention of people with its unusual, humorous take amid the war. The social media handles of the embassy took a jab at Hegseth while sharing the video.
“The Strait is open,” the embassy’s X handle wrote in response to the viral video.
Iran’s diplomatic embassies have waged a memetic war online while the US and Israel continue to bomb the country. These embassies have received widespread praise for a coordinated social media campaign to set a narrative amid the war.
At the news conference, Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praised the successful weekend retrieval from Iran of a US airman whose jet was shot down on Friday.
Hegseth, who has faced scrutiny for outspokenly blending his evangelical religious faith with military operations, described the rescue in explicitly Christian terms, comparing it to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The rescue mission came amid rising concern about the nearly six-week-long war’s effect on the global economy, including a sharp rise in fuel prices. The conflict has also hit Trump’s approval ratings and intensified anxiety among Republicans about November’s midterm elections.
Trump on Monday said he will order sweeping attacks on Iranian civilian power plants and bridges on Tuesday night unless Tehran makes a deal aimed at ending the five-week war with Iran.
Trump’s vow at a White House press conference came ahead of the 8 p.m. EDT deadline on Tuesday (0000 GMT Wednesday) that he set for Iran to comply with U.S. conditions.
Trump is demanding that Iran forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil transit waterway. He said: “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”
“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump said.
He said the U.S. has a plan “where every bridge in Iran will be decimated” by midnight EDT (0400 GMT) Wednesday and “where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.”
“I mean, complete demolition – by 12 o’clock, and it’ll happen over a period of four hours if we want it to. We don’t want that to happen,” he said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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