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President Trump signed an executive order on Monday to form a new commission focused on improving the lives of military spouses and families and addressing the challenges they encounter.
The new commission, called the President’s Military Spouse Commission, will be chaired by Jennifer Rauchet, the wife of the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It will advise the commander in chief on challenges faced by military spouses, including healthcare, employment, childcare, education and others.
“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 said in the Oval Office, with Hegseth and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, in attendance.
Christie Mullin, the wife of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, along with 20 other military spouses representing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, each branch’s senior enlisted leader and service secretaries, will be members of the commission.
“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,” Rauchet said Monday.
“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,” she said alongside dozens of military spouses.
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.
During his first term, Trump signed the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act, which allows spouses to choose the same state of residence as their service member for voting and tax purposes, irrespective of whether they have lived in that state.
“Strong families equal strong formations. I mean, when you look at it from a military perspective, as a secretary, our job is to make sure our troops are prepared and ready on behalf of the nation,” Hegseth said Monday. “And if your family’s not taken care of, then it causes hesitations and complications for the warfighters up front.”
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