He Said “We Do Training, Not Trannies”

Wooden transgender symbol and two human figures on blue background — Photo: ADragan / Shutterstock

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called transgender people a slur while pitching a bigger military budget at the Iowa State Fair, and the video is already everywhere.

Story Snapshot

Hegseth used the term “trannies” while speaking at a Zach Nunn campaign event at the Iowa State Fair on August 17.
CNN and other outlets quickly labeled the remark a transphobic slur and reported it as a standalone story.
Hegseth told the crowd he was appearing “in a personal capacity,” raising separate questions about Pentagon political rules.
Democrats and left-leaning commentators framed the comment as proof of hostility toward transgender troops.

What Hegseth Told The Crowd At The Fairgrounds

Hegseth appeared Monday at a ticketed fundraiser called “Operation Top Nunn: Salute to the Troops,” backing Republican Congressman Zach Nunn’s reelection bid. While praising what he called a return to a “warrior ethos” inside the Pentagon, he said, “At the Department of War, we do training — not trannies,” according to the Gateway Pundit’s transcript of the remarks.

The line came during a broader pitch for restructuring military priorities around what Hegseth described as a “colorblind, gender neutral” focus. He used the moment to argue for a 40 percent boost in defense spending, tying the rhetoric about troop standards directly to his push for the department’s rebranded “Department of War” identity.

News Outlets Move Fast To Frame The Remark

CNN posted video under the headline “Hegseth uses transphobic slur at Iowa State Fair,” stating plainly that the defense secretary “used a transphobic slur while speaking at the Iowa State Fair Monday”. The clip spread across CNN’s own social channels and was picked up by other networks within hours, turning a local campaign stop into a national story almost overnight.

MSN reported Hegseth “is facing widespread backlash” for the comment, noting it came during a military fundraiser rather than an official Pentagon briefing. Commentary site ms.now went further, accusing Hegseth of pushing “hypermasculine, transphobic propaganda” to distract from other controversies swirling around his leadership at the Pentagon. That kind of framing shows how fast a six-word aside can eclipse the actual policy message a cabinet official came to deliver.

A Pattern Bigger Than One Fair

Language fights like this one rarely stay contained to a single event. Academic reviews of transgender coverage have found slurs or name-calling appear in roughly 2.4 percent of all paragraphs discussing the topic, and in 3.6 percent of paragraphs mentioning a specific transgender person. That data point matters here because it shows outrage cycles over specific wording are now a predictable feature of political coverage, not a rare exception.

The Political Stakes For Nunn And The Pentagon

Hegseth’s appearance was never just a friendly wave to fairgoers. Nunn is running for a third term in a competitive Iowa district, and Hegseth’s presence was meant to signal Pentagon-adjacent star power behind a vulnerable House Republican. The Boston Globe reported Hegseth told the crowd he was there “in a personal capacity today, as a veteran and a patriotic American,” a careful legal distinction meant to separate his cabinet role from campaign politics.

That distinction is now under its own scrutiny. The Gazette reported questions about whether a Senate-confirmed cabinet secretary headlining a ticketed campaign fundraiser crosses lines set by Pentagon rules on political activity, separate from the slur controversy itself. Both storylines are now running side by side, with critics using each to reinforce the other.

Democrats prove that they do not believe in FREE SPEECH! Democrats and CNN Lose it After Pete Hegseth Utters This So-Called 'Transphobic Slur' at the Iowa State Fair (VIDEO) https://t.co/EFF9d4pm8v #gatewaypundit via @gatewaypundit

— Deborah Steinmetz (@DeborahSteinme4) August 23, 2026

Supporters of Hegseth see a defense secretary speaking plainly about military standards, using blunt language that reflects how millions of ordinary Americans already talk. Critics see an official mocking a vulnerable group from a public stage. Both reactions are happening at once, and neither side shows signs of backing down anytime soon. The fair may be over, but the fight over what Hegseth said is not.