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'The war on wrinkles': Trump's DoD launches crusade against bad grooming
President Donald Trump's Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has launched a war against bad grooming, according to a new report.The battle was launched on the policy field, with Hegseth making numerous changes to the military's grooming standards. The new directives allow military members to receive laser hair removal treatments, which the government would pay for. They also prohibit military members from wearing eyelash extensions, restrict certain kinds of nail polishes, and impose a slew of seemingly arbitrary policies concerning uniform sleeves and cuffs.
All of which is being done “in support of Army readiness," according to the new directive.
Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein described the directive as Hegseth becoming the "self-appointed commanding general of the war on wrinkles."
"In fact, Hegseth seems to be taking a page out of the Russian military playbook, which, upon suffering over one million casualties in Ukraine, is also trying to stress appearances over serious failures of policy and humaneness," Klippenstein wrote in a recent Substack article.
The new grooming policy was implemented at a time when the Department of Defense is still reeling frommultiple scandals.
For instance, Hegseth still has not answered questions about his involvement in April's Signalgate scandal. That episode involved Hegseth and several other cabinet members discussing war plans in a Signal group chat, even though government policy prohibits the use of Signal to discuss official business.
Hegseth also unilaterally paused a shipment of weapons to Ukraine without telling the Trump administration. The weapons were eventually sent to the country, but it raised questions about who is making important decisions within the Trump administration.
Read the entire report here.
