“The View” co-hosts slammed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s message to service members on Tuesday about increasing military fitness standards, accusing him of “fat-shaming” U.S. troops.

Hegseth called out “fat troops” during his remarks before hundreds of commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. The Secretary of War also said, “It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the world. It’s a bad look.”

“Why is he obsessed with fat?” co-host Joy Behar asked as co-host Sunny Hostin added, “And fitness.”

“The View” co-host Joy Behar speaks during the show Sept. 26, 2025.
“All of these people from different backgrounds come together and fight for the American values,” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said in response to Hegseth’s remarks. “So, I don’t understand why we have to denigrate the military to try to talk about doing better. And I would also mention we did have a recruiting crisis, but in 2024 and 2025, finally the military met recruitment goals, which is huge.

“I did not like that Pete Hegseth, who did serve his country but chose to denigrate the service of others.”

Behar chimed in again, “And fat-shaming!”

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin during the ABC show Sept. 22, 2025.
Hostin also slammed the speech.

“I’m really befuddled by why he did that. The optics were terrible,” she said.

“It also didn’t make a lot of sense to me that he was saying that he was going to toughen physical standards and review the anti-hazing policy by sort of implementing a hazing policy and then also he said he was going to return to the highest male standard for combat positions because the troops were fat. I just, I don’t understand how that was supposed to be an uplifting message for our military,” Hostin added.

Hegseth announced that all combat personnel would be required to meet the highest male physical standard to maintain their positions.

The cabinet secretary also told officers to “resign” if they disagreed with eliminating “woke” diversity measures and removing restrictions on lethal force on the battlefield.

“If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth told the audience. “We would thank you for your service. But I suspect the overwhelming majority of you feel the opposite. These words make your hearts full.”

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.