Social media is alight over the image of US War Secretary Pete Hegseth's 'Russian' tie.

Contrary to claims, the tie was not given to him by Putin.

FNN has learned that this is in fact the tie of his Princeton fraternity house.

A spokesperson explained:

Pete's normal meeting red tie was stained so he grabbed the first one he found in his closet, which turned out to be the red, white and blue tie of the Alpha Boner Kappa fraternity house (motto: Regulae Boners or Boners Rule!) at Princeton where he graduated with a BA before doing a masters at Harvard.

The tie is now a trending product on Russia's Wildberries online marketplace along with the blue CCCP tracksuit rumoured to be worn by Sergei Lavrov on the plane to the previous meeting in Alaska.