You made me zoom in, and yes, I can see that it’s a bit of a flag handkerchief. No doubt he wants it to look like a line of medals.

There is an interesting article in the NYT on him, and how he might be being perceived by the military’s senior officers:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/us/politics/hegseth-military-officers.html

“He views the world from the point of view of a not terribly successful major in the National Guard,” said Eliot Cohen, a military historian who served in the State Department under President George W. Bush. “For him it’s push-ups, pull-ups and pugil sticks. It’s aggressiveness.”