Secretary of State Marco Rubio told conservative media personality Katie Miller in a recent episode of her podcast that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “a cat guy.”
During the interview with Miller, Rubio and his wife, Jeanette Rubio, talked about their pets at home, with Marco Rubio saying one of their dogs is “really smart” and knows how to open the door. He also noted that Hegseth is a neighbor of theirs.
They live at Fort Lesley J. McNair, an Army base in Washington, according to The Washington Post. Many Trump administration officials have moved into the military housing to stay shielded from protests and violence.
“One day, I think Pete and his family were just sitting around watching television, and they keep their front door open because they have cats, which I never took Pete for a cat guy,” the secretary of State said.
He added later that his “dog just walked into” Hegseth’s living room “and looked around, realized, ‘I’m in the wrong house,’ and turned around and walked out.”
“So, they’ve had some experience over there. But I think the dogs are attracted to his house because the cats,” he added.
Marco Rubio has posted pet photos before, captioning one photo of one of his dogs from 2020, Winston, saying that he “told Winston he can’t have a [phone] until he is 13.”
“But he asks a good question, is that dog years or human years?” he added in the Instagram post.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
