A dress worn to one of Washington’s most high-profile nights of the year ended up at the center of an online debate.On April 25, 2026, Jennifer Hegseth (née Rauchet) attended the White HouseCorrespondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton alongside her husband, Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of Defense.She wore a pink-nude off-the-shoulder gown, and two days later, someone on the internet recognized it from a retailer that isn’t exactly a designer.Pete and Jennifer were all smiles at the event, while posing for the cameras. Her dress featured asymmetric satin detailing and rhinestone embellishment that gave it enough shine for the black-tie evening.

But on April 27, X netizen Ella Devi posted side-by-side images of Jennifer in the gown and the same dress listed on Temu, writing, “pete hegeseth’s wife wore a dress from temu to the white house correspondents dinner (i’m not joking) [sic].”The listing she referenced priced the dress at roughly $14. A nearly identical version is also available on Shein for around $42, and the Daily Mail confirmed it had also been found on Amazon.Devi received a myriad of different comments on this claim, including some suggesting that Temu was known for copying designer outfits.Therefore, in the same thread, she responded, “‘wah wah wah temu steals designs!’ a) THIS dress design ORIGINATED on temu/shein b) hard for me to believe it’s not from temu given that the primary retailers of her bag are amazon and aliexpress.”