{"id":306767,"date":"2026-02-23T23:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/306767\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T23:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:53:09","slug":"analysis-this-is-trump-2-0-bro-what-do-you-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/306767\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: This is Trump 2.0, bro. What do you bench?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A version of this story appeared in CNN\u2019s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n Their policies may divide the country, but on social media, the president\u2019s men are all crushing it as influencers, bro.\n <\/p>\n

\n They\u2019re in the locker room and the gym, and they\u2019re not going to let matters of state force them to skip leg day.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u25ba FBI Director Kash Patel<\/a> took a break from law enforcement to chug a celebratory beer with the US men\u2019s hockey team after their gold medal win, his latest trip on a government jet controversially blending work and pleasure.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u25ba Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s most recent workout video is a banger in which the chiseled politician exercises shirtless in jeans in a wood-paneled sauna with the entertainer Kid Rock before they drink whole milk together in a hot tub.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy has bonded with the music star since Kid Rock \u201cmade the decision to change his depraved, debauched and famous dissolute lifestyle,\u201d Kennedy told Fox News<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n In recent weeks, Kennedy, a recovering addict, also opened up to the podcaster Theo Von about his drug-fueled past.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats,\u201d Kennedy said, explaining that he wasn\u2019t afraid of Covid-19.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy also teamed up this month with Mike Tyson, who served three years in prison for rape in the 1990s<\/a>, for a PSA to spread the gospel of weight loss by eating \u201creal food.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u25ba Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has posted multiple videos of himself bench-pressing. Hegseth has worked himself up to 315 pounds on the bench. That impressive weight could make up for the questionable form he exhibited in previous videos featuring pullups<\/a> and kettlebells<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Who says the leader of the Department of War, as the Trump administration calls the Pentagon, can\u2019t have a little fun while preparing for possible military action against Iran? Hegseth would not have been able to join in the beer chugging, however; he swore to give up alcohol while in office after his pre-Pentagon partying<\/a> became an issue at confirmation hearings.\n <\/p>\n

\n For these middle-aged men, proving they can be one of the boys is a key part the image they\u2019re presenting online.\n <\/p>\n

\n Social media strategy has been an important part of the Trump administration\u2019s PR, including the propagandist action movie-style videos<\/a> produced by the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s much-discussed photo ops<\/a> in various uniforms.\n <\/p>\n

\n Noem\u2019s videos put her at the center of immigration enforcement. Other top members of Trump\u2019s administration want to seem fit for military service.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u25ba Vice President JD Vance<\/a> posted photos of himself joining Navy SEALs for a beach workout in December. He climbed ropes, jogged and hopped in an inflatable boat. (Vance, a former Marine, deployed to Iraq as a public affairs specialist in 2005.)\n <\/p>\n

\"Vice<\/p>\n

\n The man at the top, President Donald Trump, is known for engaging in locker room talk<\/a> \u2014 but he is also a teetotaler and is notoriously opposed, on a philosophical level, to the idea of exercise, so don\u2019t look for beer-drinking or workout videos from him. But his campaign benefactor and former DOGE chief Elon Musk posted an AI-generated video of Trump, in a business suit, playing hockey against Canadian players.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump called in on Patel\u2019s phone to congratulate the men\u2019s team after their overtime win and invite them on the fly to Tuesday\u2019s State of the Union Address.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump promised he would do whatever is necessary, including dispatching a military plane, to get the men\u2019s hockey players to Washington, even if it requires landing in the snow.\n <\/p>\n

\n He did caution he would also have to invite the women\u2019s team, which also won a thrilling overtime win against Canada last Thursday, or else, \u201cI would probably be impeached.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The president has spent a good bit of time during his second term promising to save women\u2019s sports from what he and others frame as the threat of transgender athletes, so it was jarring to hear him mention the dominant women\u2019s team almost as an afterthought.\n <\/p>\n

\n The women\u2019s team<\/a> in a statement on Monday thanked Trump for the offer but declined, citing previous \u201cacademic and professional commitments.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday that the House would try to figure out the logistics of accommodating hockey players for the speech, Politico reported<\/a>. The address takes place in the House chamber, which is typically overstuffed for the annual event.\n <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\n The Patel video shows the noted hockey fan in a locker room celebration, but he has, like Hegseth, also moved to impose new fitness standards at his agency. He wants FBI agents to be like police in addition to their more traditional investigative role. That includes requiring female agents to do at least one pullup.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf you wanna chase down a bad guy and put him in handcuffs, you better be able to do a pull-up,\u201d Patel said during congressional testimony.\n <\/p>\n

\n Patel has also posted workout videos, including his attempt at Kennedy and Hegseth\u2019s challenge<\/a> for service members and others to do 50 pullups and 100 pushups in less than 10 minutes. Patel posted his version<\/a> from his official FBI director account on X.\n <\/p>\n