Pattie Gonia just absolutely roased Pete Hegseth, and we can’t help but stan. (Instagram/Screenshot)
Pattie Gonia just absolutely roased Pete Hegseth, and we can’t help but stan. (Instagram/Screenshot)
Environmentalist drag queen Pattie Gonia just absolutely roasted US politician Pete Hegseth whilst casually doing more pull-ups than him – tuck and all.
The 33-year-old naturalist drag icon mocked the notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ US secretary of war (formerly defence) for seemingly failing to do proper pull-ups, all while casually showing Hegseth how it’s done.
“Hi Pete Hegseth, Pattie Gonia here, while you’re busy trying to take away the rights of queer people, I’m over here advocating for the rights of all people, including my right to do better pull-ups than you all with my balls tucked inside of me,” they said whilst casually doing a set of pull-ups in a local park.
She then finished her set and walked towards the camera, remarking: “That’s fifty you little b**ch.”
In a viral clip that resurfaced earlier this year, Hegseth could be seen trying and failing to do a set of 50 pull-ups.
Shared by former marine Ron Filipkowski, the clip shows the US secretary at the tail-end of his reps visibly struggling and kicking his feet.
“The Pete Hegseth pull-up is a bit different than the ones we did at Parris Island [a Marine training facility],” Filipkowski said after sharing the clip in August. “Maybe it’s an Army thing.”
Pete Hegseth suggests banning women from US military
Since becoming defence secretary in January, Hegseth has aided in the Trump administrations efforts to exclude trans people from the US military, baselessly claiming their identity is “incompatible with active duty.”
In October, Hegseth made comments suggesting he could ban women from US military service, claiming the government will try to hold military service members to the “highest male standard.“
“Each service will ensure that every requirement for every combat [military occupational specialty], for every designed combat arms position, returns to the highest male standard only,” he said. “Because this job is life or death, standards must be met, and not just met – at every level, we should seek to exceed the standard, to push the envelope, to compete.
“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” Hegseth continued.
Pete Hegseth suggested changing military policy to adhere to “male standards” of combat readiness. (Getty)
According to the Guinness World Records, the world record for most pull-ups in 24 hours was achieved by Olivia Vinson, an Australian woman who managed to do 7,079 in March 2025.
Pattie Gonia condemned Hegseth’s anti-LGBTQ+ viewpoint that to be queer or feminine means to be weaker whilst challenging him to a pull-ups tournament.
“My name is Pattie Gonia and I challenge Pete Hegseth to a pull-up competition. I’ll win. And I’ll do it tucked,” she wrote.
In a subsequent post, she joked: “Some gay please take this video to gay Twitter we need it to actually reach him.”
When she isn’t schooling right-wingers in physical fitness, Gonia is achieving incredible feats in the name of LGBTQ+ rights.
In August, she joined a set of climbers to help hang a 66ft-wide trans flag across the El Capitan climbing wall in Yosemite Park.
Speaking to The Guardian, they said the flag was raised across the famous climbing wall to show that being trans is natural in the face of growing right-wing attacks.