“Could have been an email,” complained an anonymous defense official to Politico about the major military brass meeting called by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.

Respectfully, Tuesday’s gathering of roughly 800 high-level military officers in Quantico, Virginia, was worth attending in person.

That doesn’t mean Trump didn’t use the platform for his usual sort of stump speech, which isn’t exactly the best use of military leaders’ time or money. It doesn’t mean that the meeting didn’t, as Politico groused, have “the feeling of a Hollywood production.” But Trump 2.0 is about making big productions of undoing the destruction of Joe Biden’s term. The messaging is as important as the policy for this version of Team Trump.

And Secretary Hegseth’s was one heck of a message.

For context, consider that for the last decade and a half, the United States Armed Forces have served increasingly as a petri dish for left-wing social experimentation. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion replaced meritocracy with lower standards. Military and national pride were made subordinate to sexual-confusion pride. “Transgender” troops were given priority and funding while Biden’s Pentagon hunted all the supposed white supremacists dominating the ranks. Climate change was framed as the most important “enemy” our nation faces.

All of that utter garbage had to go, and Trump and Hegseth chose to toss it very publicly.

“Good morning and welcome to the War Department because the era of the Department of Defense is over,” Hegseth told the gathered brass. “From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting — preparing for war and preparing to win.”

Hegseth addressed the “decades of decay” that had overtaken the military, which he specifically said included the aforementioned focus on race, gender, and “historic so-called firsts.”

This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that s**t.

Instead, he argued, we need to prioritize readiness.

If you don’t want your child “serving with fat or unfit or under-trained troops” or in any other undesirable circumstance, then the military must uphold better standards. “Standards must be uniform, gender neutral, and high,” he said. “If not, they’re not standards. They’re just suggestions, suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed.”

That shouldn’t be controversial; it is only because of recent history.

The standards won’t just apply to the grunts, either. The gathered brass must also undergo tests, and Hegseth wasn’t polite about telling them. “If the secretary of war can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our joint force,” he noted. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world.”

PT tests will be required twice a year for “every member of the joint force at every rank.” That’s not going to be very fun for some of those guys in the audience, but Hegseth cares a lot more about how the rank-and-file see and perceive their leaders than he does about whether generals don’t like sweating anymore.

He also doesn’t give a rip about the sensitivities of modern feminists. In explaining the return to gender-neutral and high standards, he said, “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result. So be it. It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”

If your feelings are hurt, dear cupcake, find another line of work. “Do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth told them.

If you were running a major sports team, you wouldn’t reduce standards so that a woman who throws 45 miles an hour can be your starting pitcher. You wouldn’t shift requirements so that a short, overweight middle-aged guy could be your starting point guard.

Why on earth would you put military lives and national security at risk so that a few misfits could feel better about themselves?

“We’re training warriors, not defenders,” Hegseth insisted. “We fight wars to win, not to defend.” In fact, he concluded, “Lethality is our calling card and victory our only acceptable end state.”

The world is more dangerous today than it was 10 years ago. The U.S. military must be prepared to confront these challenges, and it is up to the president and Congress to provide what Hegseth, the Pentagon, and every soldier, sailor, pilot, and Marine need to succeed.

What they don’t need is to be encumbered with nonsense left-wing social policies that don’t even belong on TikTok, much less in a military combat unit. They don’t need to be told that “diversity is our strength.” No, strength is our strength.

This in-person meeting was notable and worthwhile because Hegseth respects our leaders enough to not just send them an email. He wanted to look them in the eyes and tell them what most of them desperately wanted to hear — the United States Armed Forces are back, and they’re going to be better than ever. That just happens to be why recruitment is up.

.@SecWar Pete Hegseth FULL REMARKS at the WAR DEPARTMENT ADDRESS: pic.twitter.com/dbvmQg3FT6

— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) September 30, 2025

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