The Wall Street Journal and other mainstream media sources recently took shots at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to bring his wife to confidential meetings between the Trump administration and foreign military counterparts.

The decision to call out Hegseth for bringing along his wife has come back to bite both the Wall Street Journal and former First Lady Jill Biden.

The news outlet seemed to have forgotten that not only was Jill Biden present during meetings during her time as first lady, but she actually led them!

Double standard

Unfortunately for the Wall Street Journal, internet users had not forgotten Jill Biden's presence at those meetings and called out the news outlet’s double standard. CEO of the Federalist, Sean Davis, took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, where he let it fly. Davis called out the double standard of Wall Street Journal “yawning” when Jill Biden “ran cabinet meetings” but having an issue with Hegseth choosing to bring his wife to a few meetings.

“Sorry, @WSJ, but you don’t get to play this game after yawning when Jill Biden ran cabinet meetings because Joe Biden’s brain was pudding – a fact you help cover up for years,” he wrote in the post.

Sorry, @WSJ, but you don’t get to play this game after yawning when Jill Biden ran cabinet meetings because Joe Biden’s brain was pudding—a fact you helped cover up for years. pic.twitter.com/1q1xUnPezD

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 29, 2025

The allegations

The Wall Street Journal reported that Hegseth’s wife had attended two meetings.

They also reported that Hegseth “can invite anyone to meetings with visiting counterparts.”

“But attendee lists are usually carefully limited to those who need to be there and attendees are typically expected to possess security clearances given the delicate nature of the discussions, according to defense officials and people familiar with the meeting,” the article added.

“There is often security near the meeting space to keep away uninvited attendees,” it went on.

“Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Hegseth, isn’t a Defense Department employee, defense officials said. It isn’t uncommon for spouses for senior officials to possess low-level security clearances, but a Pentagon spokesperson declined to say whether Jennifer has one,” the Wall Street Journal’s article also said.

“Jennifer didn’t respond to requests for comment,” the article concluded.

The Wall Street Journal article comes not long after Hegseth found himself in hot water over his decision to send extremely sensitive material about national security via Signal chat.

Many critics of Hegseth are also upset with his decision to put his younger brother, Phil Hegseth into a very crucial role at the Pentagon.