Overview

• At the Pentagon Athletic Center, the secretaries attempted 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups under a five-minute goal they called the top standard, with Hegseth finishing about 5:25 and Kennedy roughly 5:48.
• Video showed Marines in attendance completing the routine faster, with several under four minutes and one under three, according to Hegseth.
• Kennedy cast the event as the start of a Make America Healthy Again tour urging exercise and whole-food diets and promoting a 10-minute version of the challenge for the public.
• Hegseth tied the push to tightening military fitness and weight rules, posting on X that “REAL fitness & weight standards are here” and “We will be FIT, not FAT.”
• The effort tracks with President Trump’s July order restoring the Presidential Fitness Test and the President’s Council, and the pair publicly invited Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and others to take the challenge.