The United States could be engaged in a military conflict with Iran as soon as this weekend. But what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants every American to be reassured about is this one very important thing: His glutes stay glued to the bench when he\u2019s pumping iron.<\/p>\n
\u201cGotta keep the butt down,\u201d Mr. Hegseth said, presumably to himself, as he attempted to bench press over 300 pounds on camera.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t touch it!\u201d Mr. Hegseth yelled seconds later to dissuade his teenage son, who was spotting him, from helping him hoist the weight. The defense secretary then successfully racked his weights and posted the video to social media on Thursday.<\/p>\n There, it received lots of feedback. \u201cBro, go do your job,\u201d read one comment. \u201cBenching 315 is really impressive even if you don\u2019t like him,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n In another corner of the Trump administration\u2019s virtual locker room, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this week posted a video<\/a> of himself in which he wore jeans in a hot tub, chugged a glass of whole milk and rode an exercise bike in a sauna. These activities were all performed shirtless and under the supervision of the musician Kid Rock.<\/p>\n Every day, the men in these videos (well, not Kid Rock) make choices that have the potential to alter the lives of countless Americans, whether it is through changing vaccine schedules or unleashing U.S. firepower around the world.<\/p>\n But they still find a way to work out and hang out \u2014 just guys spending time together and filming it! In fact, most things Mr. Trump and his advisers do tend to be explained away as: Boys will be boys, and boy, do they have a lot of energy.<\/p>\n The 90-second video Mr. Kennedy released with Kid Rock (government name: Robert Richie) earlier this week had a policy objective, somewhere in there. But more than a few viewers who watched it struggled to decipher what, exactly, was happening. USA Today called it<\/a> an \u201cerotic workout video.\u201d Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of \u201cMorning Joe,\u201d declared that she could not \u201cunsee\u201d it.<\/p>\n The video, called \u201cSecretary Kennedy and Kid Rock\u2019s Rock Out Work Out\u201d and set to the tune of \u201cBawitdaba,\u201d the rocker\u2019s 1999 hit single, sees the duo strip off their shirts, wave an American flag by a swimming pool and do sit-ups together. This was done in the name of promoting Mr. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d agenda, which is organized around whole food and exercise.<\/p>\n At one point, Kid Rock raises his middle finger to the camera, because boys will be boys, and he is a bad boy. Get it?<\/p>\n Boys will be boys at the airport, where, in December, Mr. Kennedy and Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, had a quick pull-up competition<\/a> underneath a newly installed exercise bar. Boys will be boys on a sunny beach, where Mr. Hegseth recently joined Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, for a round of \u201ctree pull-ups, a cold plunge, and a Mediterranean feast,\u201d according to a photo spread<\/a> shared Wednesday by Dr. Oz.<\/p>\n Boys will be boys in group chats; in October, Vice President JD Vance defended \u201cyoung boys\u201d who tell \u201cedgy, offensive\u201d jokes, after a group of Young Republicans were found to be calling Black people \u201cmonkeys\u201d and declaring their love for Hitler in text messages.<\/p>\n Boys will be boys when they squabble publicly, as Elon Musk did with Peter Navarro, Mr. Trump\u2019s trade adviser, last spring when they disagreed over tariffs. Mr. Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world and a sometimes Trump adviser, called Mr. Navarro a \u201cmoron\u201d after Mr. Navarro said that Mr. Musk was a \u201ccar assembler\u201d who was only interested in \u201ccheap foreign parts\u201d to build Teslas.<\/p>\n Updated\u00a0<\/p>\n Feb. 20, 2026, 7:04 p.m. ET<\/p>\n \u201cBoys will be boys,\u201d Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said brightly at the time. \u201cAnd we will let that public sparring continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump, who has long explained his behavior as a natural consequence of being too much of a red-blooded male, sits proudly atop the dog pile.<\/p>\n In 2016, his wife, Melania Trump, explained away a potentially devastating moment in Mr. Trump\u2019s presidential campaign by dismissing his comments about grabbing women by the genitals as little more than \u201cboy talk.\u201d Mr. Trump, who has been held liable for sexual assault and accused of sexual abuse by several women, has denigrated his accusers as fabulists and opportunists, or otherwise unworthy of his sexual attention.<\/p>\n Whether voters believed him or not, they rewarded him. These days, Mr. Trump asserts his own version of masculinity just about every chance he gets.<\/p>\n