Though it was somewhat overshadowed by other urgent events of the night, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Rauchet, made some waves at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—but probably not in the way she intended.
Eagle-eyed fashion designer Ella Devi caught that Rauchet seemed to be rocking a dress from fast-fashion giant Temu, where it retails for $14.
Or, per Daily Mail, it could be the same dress from rival fast-fashion site Shein for $42.
Some internet denizen stanning for Hegseth’s wife—why, really?—tried to float that Rauchert was actually wearing a dress by Ronald Joyce for Veni Infantino, where it retails for 675 pounds, or approximately $913.
But not only does Rauchet’s dress look much more like the Temu version—which is much shinier and has a different fabric on the shoulders—but she’s also carrying a bag that’s primarily sold by Shein and Amazon and wearing Steve Madden shoes.
It’s a veritable cavalcade of cheap brands that thrive on imitation.
Nice touch choosing shoes made by Steve Madden, who went to prison for scamming investors by conspiring with brokerages to artificially juice the company’s stock price during its initial public offering. And it isn’t like that’s some arcane bit of knowledge—it was a major plot point in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
And even if Rauchert had been rocking a Veni Infantino original, described as “a perfect choice for the mother of the bride or groom seeking a radiant and elegant look in a destination setting,” it would be a distinctly odd choice for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Of course, conservatives tried to spin this as some sort of savvy act, with Fox News contributor Johnny Joey Jones calling it “an absolute baller move.”
But no one is mocking Rauchert for being thrifty. Rather, it’s that Rauchert—who is married to one of the most America First goobers in an administration stuffed with America First goobers—seems to be buying from a retailer that is the very antithesis of that
In 2023, the House formed a select committee on China to “develop a plan of action to defend the American people, our economy, and values from the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and ensure that the American economy can outcompete that of the PRC.”
The committee released interim findings that same year about its investigation into forced labor at Shein and Temu, finding that neither was taking steps to ensure that they weren’t selling products made by the forced labor of the Uyghur people, a Muslim ethnic minority group in China that the CCP has subjected to detention, torture, sexual violence, and religious persecution.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor has a big page about the forced labor programs and everything.
Republicans on the committee seemed less bothered by the whole forced labor thing and more concerned with tariffs—even before Trump’s tariff obsession kicked off.
Former GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin paid the briefest lip service to the violent exploitation of workers before drilling down to what really made him mad.
“Temu is doing next to nothing to keep its supply chains free from slave labor. At the same time, Temu and Shein are building empires around the de minimis loophole in our import rules—dodging import taxes and evading scrutiny on the millions of goods they sell to Americans,” he said. “We need to take a hard look at this loophole that is being abused to tilt the playing field against American companies.”
With all of this in mind, it might seem like Rauchert’s choice to wear Temu was an act of hypocrisy—a betrayal of the ostensible core ethos of this administration. But it really isn’t.
It’s what Trumpism is really all about: ripping off the work of actual designers to manufacture shoddy products that won’t last, with prices kept artificially low by the use of enslaved workers.
At least Rauchert’s Temu dress took the heat off of Hegseth, who was roundly mocked for his ill-fitting getup for the “Melania” movie premiere.
Maybe his wife can take him on a fast-fashion shopping spree next time.
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