Secretary of State Pete Hegseth on Tuesday struggled to say “e pluribus unum,” fumbling the traditional motto before U.S. troops helped him complete it. (Watch the video below.) The latin phrase for “out of many, one,” appears on the Great Seal of the United States, but Hegseth couldn’t quite spit it out during a speech in Stuttgart, Germany.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has trained with U.S. Marines in Germany ahead of his first NATO meeting. Hegseth is currently on a week-long trip that includes visits to Germany, Belgium and Poland, after he narrowly made it through the Senate's confirmation process in which Vice President JD Vance had to cast a tie-breaking vote.