Was U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Karina Martinez attacking Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for his speech to generals and admirals in a TikTok video in which she says leaders should not be disrespectful, malicious, or spiteful with people who work for them? No, that's not true: Hegseth's address in which he criticized "fat generals" was delivered on September 30, 2025, while Staff Sgt. Martinez posted her video on TikTok on September 15, 2025. Her advice was for leaders to "treat people with kindness and respect" or else karma is "gonna charge you." Martinez said she was talking about "any type of leader" and she never mentioned Hegseth.
The claim appeared in several viral posts, including a post (archived here) published by the @tarabull808 account on X on October 1, 2025. The caption above a repost of the sergeant's video read:
This Sergeant is openly attacking Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on TikTok while in uniform. Should she be disciplined?
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
Another viral video (archived here) called for Staff Sgt. Martinez to be demoted and given a dishonorable discharge.
Many of the commenters assumed that her video was a reaction to Hegseth's address (archived here) to 800 high-ranking officers on September 30, 2025. Martinez could not have known what the defense secretary would say in that address since she posted her video two weeks earlier.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of TikTok)
This is what the sergeant's TikTok video (archived here) looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of TikTok)
The full transcript of the video by Martinez reads:
Good afternoon, everyone. So today, I just wanted to come on here and tell you that if you're a leader, it doesn't, any type of leader, right? You could be a drill sergeant like me, a section NCO, a platoon sergeant, a First Sergeant, and if you think that you are going to have the capability to be disrespectful, to be malicious, to be spiteful, with people's careers, with the people that work for you in general. Just remember, karma knows your name, and sooner or later, she's gonna charge you so treat people with kindness and respect.
The first video on Martinez's TikTok account (archived here) was posted in 2020, and she posted at least 60 since then in which she was wearing her Army uniform.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of TikTok)
