Jennifer Hegseth, wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been appointed to chair a new military spouse commission that Trump signed into executive order on Monday.
Trump said during the Oval Office signing that “Many military spouses spend months separated from their loved ones while our heroes are deployed overseas.”
The President’s Military Spouse Commission is tasked with helping solve military family challenges such as housing and childcare.
Other commission officers include Trump’s deputy assistant Desiree Thompson Sayle and Christie Mullin, wife of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“Military spouses are the bedrock of our Armed Forces’ readiness and resilience. They are often overlooked but we see them and want them to know help is on the way,” Jennifer Hegseth told Fox News Digital.
“I am deeply honored to lead this Commission alongside my fellow military spouses in leadership. We will work tirelessly to dismantle the barriers our families face every single day and these families can rest assured they have a champion in the White House with President Trump.”
The commission is designed to give the White House a direct line to the challenges facing military spouses, including childcare, employment, housing, healthcare, education and the demands of multiple deployments.
Trump said in the Oval Office, with Hegseth and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, in attendance: “America cannot have the strongest military in the world without the love and devotion of our remarkable military spouses, who make the extraordinary sacrifices for our country.”
Trump called it “an order that’s long overdue” during the signing ceremony at the White House, flanked by more than a dozen military spouses who will be part of the new commission.
Jennifer Hegseth said: “These are generational issues that are LONG OVERDUE to address, and we have the most amazing women here who have DECADES of experience as military spouses themselves to take a look at it… I spent the last year traveling around, meeting with military spouses and families around the world and around the country, and it’s the same from Kentucky to Singapore. It’s housing, it’s healthcare, it’s employment, it’s childcare, it’s education. We’re going to take a look at all those things.”
For more than a decade, military spouses have struggled with unemployment rates above 20%, in addition to various problems with housing, lack of affordable childcare and persistent issues with access to health care.
Trump will appoint an executive director, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s wife, Christie Mullin, and 20 other military spouses representing the service secretaries, Joint Chiefs of Staff and each branch’s senior enlisted leader will serve as commission members.
Mullin told Fox News Digital: “The fight to support our service members is not just abroad, it’s also right here at home.”
Trump said that collectively, these spouses have more than 400 years of experience as active-duty spouses.
The spouses will serve without compensation, but they may receive reimbursement for travel expenses.
Pete Hegseth said: “And if your family’s not taken care of, then it causes hesitations and complications for the warfighters up front.”
One senior enlisted member’s wife who spoke at the ceremony said: “It means the world to me that you highlight the enlisted corps.”
Just less than a quarter, or 23 percent, of surveyed active-duty spouses were unemployed in 2025, according to the Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey from that year.
Jennifer Hegseth said: “There’s really nothing we’re going to find that they haven’t experienced, and so between what they’ve experienced and what they know, we’re going to really tackle these things.”
The new commission, called the President’s Military Spouse Commission, will be chaired by Jennifer Rauchet, the wife of the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Commission members will include spouses of senior military leaders from across the U.S. Armed Forces. All will serve as volunteers.
Jennifer Hegseth said Monday that people serving on the new Military Spouse Commission know firsthand of the daily challenges experienced by military families: “I’ve spent the last year traveling around and meeting with military spouses and families around the world and around the country — and it’s the same from Kentucky to Singapore.”
The commission will meet monthly at the White House and will provide a report on the issues at the end of each fiscal year for as long as the commission exists.