US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has found himself at the centre of a growing storm. His tenure is now being compared to the infamous “lettuce treatment” – a nod to the ill-fated Liz Truss premiership, which lasted less time than a lettuce on a live stream.
🚨 Hegseth Faces Growing Scrutiny
Reports suggest that Donald Trump is considering replacing Hegseth after a series of missteps. According to NPR, Hegseth is under fire for sharing classified information about US airstrikes on Yemen with family and close associates over the messaging app Signal.
Hegseth had already been under pressure due to his involvement in another Signal chat that accidentally included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. When asked about his confidence in Hegseth, Trump responded curtly: “Why would you even ask a question like that?”
Meanwhile, Hegseth dismissed the second Signal issue as “a bunch of hit pieces,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt quickly defended him, calling him “a phenomenal leader” at the Pentagon. Leavitt also blamed internal opposition within the Pentagon for the scrutiny.
🤔 The Lettuce Comparison: History Repeats
The comparison to a lettuce stems from a bizarre viral moment during Liz Truss’s tenure as Prime Minister. In 2022, the Daily Star started live streaming a lettuce to see if it would outlast Truss’s premiership. To everyone’s amusement, the lettuce did, with Truss resigning six days later after a disastrous mini-Budget.
This year, Republicans Against Trump revived the joke, posting a photo of Hegseth alongside a lettuce, captioned, “Here we go.” The post quickly went viral, racking up over 21,000 likes and nearly half a million views on X.
The humour was also shared on BlueSky, where Democrats photoshopped Hegseth into the original lettuce live stream. The meme went even further, with Democrat US Senate hopeful Catherine Fleming Bruce chiming in, saying, “Folks from the UK will know exactly what that means.”
👀 The “Lettuce Treatment” Spreads
The comparison between Hegseth’s job woes and Liz Truss’s lettuce moment shows just how quickly a political disaster can spiral into viral humour. Whether or not Hegseth stays in his position remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: the lettuce will be watching.
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