Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wore a white, blue and red striped tie during last week’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
- Russian state media, including Tass, and Kremlin-linked figure Kirill Dmitriev highlighted the image as matching the Russian flag, while U.S. allies argued the colors are those of the American flag.
- Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell responded to a HuffPost inquiry with a vulgar put‑down and called the tie patriotic, according to reporting cited by Ukrainska Pravda.
- Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson further defended Hegseth as a patriot who often wears flag-themed attire after the reporter asked about U.S. flag code concerns.
- The tie flap unfolded alongside substantive talks in which President Trump urged an immediate halt to the war that could involve Ukrainian territorial concessions, as Zelensky pressed for munitions support.