Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that President Trump has brought the U.S. Military back from the brink in an explosive interview, with Hegseth referring to the president’s determination to root out all “political correct garbage” out of the military’s practices and standards.
For context, in a June 14, 2025, interview on Fox & Friends in Washington, D.C., Secretary Hegseth made it clear that the U.S. Military has changed and eliminated any and all wokeness, saying that those who want to enlist will find that the military is “raising its standards” to push back against political correctness.
During the interview, which took place at the military parade held on President Trump’s birthday, Secretary Hegseth credited the president for transforming the military, saying, “Americans want to join and we’re raising the standards, we’re making them equal, we’re getting all the political correct garbage out of our ranks.”
Importantly, Secretary Hegseth’s comments came just a few months after he released a video on April 1 and outlined the military’s new standards. During that appearance, the defense secretary said that the military had “allowed standards to slip” and had accepted “different standards for men and women.” He added, “That’s not acceptable.”
Continuing, the defense secretary said that instead of giving into wokeness, “We need to have the same standard male or female in our combat roles to ensure our men and women who are under our leaders or in those formations have the best possible leaders and the highest possible standards that are not based at all on your sex, if you’re a man or a woman.”
Moreover, on January 27, 2025, President Trump issued an official order saying that he was “committed to meritocracy and to the elimination of race-based and sex-based discrimination within the Armed Forces of the United States.” The order continued, “No individual or group within our Armed Forces should be preferred or disadvantaged on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color, or creed.”
Next, the president’s order went on to say that “civilian and uniformed leadership alike have implemented Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and their attendant race and sex preferences within the Armed Forces.” The president added, “These actions undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness. They also violate Americans’ consciences by engaging in invidious race and sex discrimination.”
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Furthermore, the president wrote that he was “abolishing the DEI Bureaucracy,” saying, “The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall abolish every DEI office within the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security,” later adding that Secretary Hegseth would “conduct an internal review” of any “race and sex discrimination” within the military.
Watch Secretary Hegseth on Fox:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video