- Fat Generals banned from Trump’s new-look US military
U.S. Defense (War) Secretary Pete Hegseth speech to more than 800 of America’s top Generals and Admirals at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia to “prepare for war” spurred fear, head-scratching and praise.
Hegseth, over the course of roughly 45 minutes, rolled out 10 directives that seek to dismantle so-called woke efforts, raise fitness standards to eliminate “fat” troops and leaders, implement strict grooming standards and impose “male standards” on combat troops.
“The only mission of the newly restored department of war is this: warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win,” announcing a total overhaul of standards and ideology.
To those who don’t share his vision, the Pentagon chief’s message was simple: You can leave.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies … but if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said.
Trump followed Hegseth on the stage, threatening to fire generals he didn’t like and suggesting the military could use “dangerous” U.S. cities as a “training ground. Democratic lawmakers swiftly criticized the event as an unnecessary gathering that set a dangerous precedent and threatens to undermine the Constitution.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) called the meeting “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership” by the Trump administration.
“While American forces confront real threats across the globe, Mr. Hegseth and President Trump chose to pull Generals and Admirals away from their missions to listen to hours of political grievances,” Reed said in a statement.
“Even more troubling was Mr. Hegseth’s ultimatum to America’s senior officers: conform to his political worldview or step aside. That demand is profoundly dangerous. It signals that partisan loyalty matters more than capability, judgment, or service to the Constitution, undermining the principle of a professional, nonpartisan military.”
Mark Cancian, the senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Defense and Security Department, said he and “many” others were worried that Hegseth’s speech would produce a partisan push on the military, but for now their concerns were alleviated.
“He talked about a nonpartisan military. He talked about, you know, the oath to the Constitution, you know, he said all the right things in that regard. So, yeah, that doesn’t mean that tomorrow we won’t do something different. But this was not that demand for loyalty that I and many other people had worried about at one point,” Cancian said in an interview with The Hill on Tuesday.
During the speech, Hegseth said physical tests would be a priority for troops, even if it leads to fewer women serving in the armed forces. He also added that the Pentagon’s internal complaint and investigations protocols will be altered so unit leaders aren’t “walking on eggshells.”
“No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more [ruined] reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more sidetracking careers or walking on eggshells,” the Department of Defense chief said.
Hegseth said sexual harassment and racism are “wrong and illegal,” saying those infractions will be “ruthlessly” enforced, but “telling someone to shave or get a haircut or get a shave or fix their uniform or show up on time or to work hard, that’s exactly the kind of discrimination we want.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), an Air Force veteran who has criticized the Pentagon Chief before, applauded Hegseth’s focus on combat and that “our main goal is to win wars and deter wars,” but he admitted that “a lot of this could have been done virtually.”
He also criticized the Trump administration’s “rampant firing of senior leaders whose really … only fault was following the directions of the previous administration.” Since February, Hegseth has carried out the firing of numerous three- and four-star generals and admirals, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. CQ Brown.
Hegseth said part of the reason the top Generals and Admirals were axed earlier this year is that the culture within the Pentagon needed a shake-up. “My approach has been simple,” he said, “when in doubt, assess the situation, follow your gut and if it’s the best for the military, make a change.”
Hegseth’s demand for all combat troops to meet “male standards” raised alarm among his critics that he was seeking to drive out women from some roles in the military.
“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,” the Defense secretary told the crowd. “That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”
Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot and Democratic Senate candidate who was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps, wrote on social platform X that Hegseth “continues to disparage and lie about women in the military.”
“He claimed the military needs to ‘return to the male standard’ in combat jobs (of 1990!), but here’s the truth: there has never been a separate male and female standard. When women entered combat roles, one standard was set, and we’ve been meeting it ever since,” she added.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who served as an officer in the Army National Guard, was supportive of his remarks.
“I think what he was espousing, especially when it comes to standards within combat arms, is something that we as Republicans have been promoting for a very long time,” she told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Cancian, who spent more than three decades in the Marine Corps, said that hiking the fitness standard for all service members will “almost certainly” lead to having fewer women in combat units, but it will not put any “serious restrictions” on women in noncombat units
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a former Army infantry officer, lauded both Hegseth’s and Trump’s speeches, saying they outlined a “bright future” for the U.S. military.
“By removing politics, emphasizing fitness standards and combat readiness, our military is refocused on deterring wars and winning them if necessary,” Cotton, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote Tuesday on X.
Common Defense, a grassroots veteran organization, in a statement called the event “a shameful and undemocratic political theater that threatens the objectivity of our military and the safety of our troops.”
Others criticized Hegseth for calling on troops to ignore “stupid rules of engagement,” disparaging the set of directives that govern how and when force can be used by the U.S. military — rules that are meant to prevent the indiscriminate killing of civilians among other war crimes.
“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy,” Hegseth said. “We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
Iraq combat veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) hammered Hegseth for his moves to water down rules of engagement and reduce penalties for hazing.
“The nation’s top defense leader encouraging hazing troops who answered the call to fight and die for us is utterly appalling, especially from someone who should know that American troops have died from hazing,” Duckworth said Tuesday.
“He also claimed that weakening rules of engagement strengthens our warfighters, when in reality it will simply create more enemies of America and make it more likely those enemies would torture captured American troops,” the Illinois Democrat said during an interview on MSNBC.
Meanwhile, many major reforms were described by the officials who implemented them as driven by that need; when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened up combat roles to women in 2015, he said the military “cannot afford to cut ourselves off from half the country’s talents and skills” if it wanted to succeed in national defense.
And while the military had made changes in recent years in an attempt to lessen instances of harassment, discrimination or toxic leadership by creating reporting mechanisms so that troops would come forward, Hegseth said those efforts went too far and were undercutting commanders.
“The definition of ‘toxic’ has been turned upside down, and we’re correcting that,” Hegseth vowed on Tuesday, adding that the Defense Department would be undertaking a review of words like “hazing” and “bullying” which he said had been “weaponized.”
The Generals and Admirals were ordered on short notice to attend the event at the military installation in Quantico, Virginia including many stationed overseas, and sources have described the expected cost of the event to rise into the millions of dollars, given the logistics involved.
‘Stupid rules’
Hegseth called for troops to ignore “stupid rules of engagement.” Rules of engagement are directives governing how and when force can be used by the US military.
“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy,” Hegseth said. “We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
Hegseth has long been deeply skeptical of war crimes investigations and has advocated for President Donald Trump to pardon or grant clemency to at least three service members accused of war crimes since 2019. In his remarks on Tuesday, Hegseth appeared to criticize a retired US Army general — Peter Chiarelli — who formally reprimanded Hegseth’s former brigade commander in 2007. The commander, Michael Steele, had been accused of issuing improper orders to his soldiers that led to the deaths of unarmed Iraqis.
“The new compass heading is clear — out with the Chiarellis, the McKenzies, and the Milleys. And in with the Stockdales, the Schwarzkopfs, and the Pattons,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth said the issues he was discussing Tuesday could not “go another day” without being addressed. His remarks were followed by a speech from Trump, who before attending told reporters he would fire officers “right on the spot” if he didn’t like them.
One former senior Pentagon official, who has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations and who listened to Hegseth’s speech and spoke with officials in the room, described his remarks as “uninspired.” The former official said it was largely what everyone expected but still sounded more like what a platoon leader in their early 20s would say to their young, enlisted troops.
“These guys were captains and majors in the wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the former senior official said of the officers in the room. “Many of them wounded, with Silver Stars and Purple Hearts. And here’s this guy — the youngest guy in the room, the most inexperienced guy in the room, with the least amount of combat time in the room … lecturing them?”
Reversing past policies
Hegseth, a former National Guard Major, has frequently criticized the military’s General Officer corps for what he has said is their involvement in the politicization of the military.
The secretary, who has said he will return the Pentagon to focusing solely on warfighting — told senior officers that the issue of threats to the homeland and deterring China was “another speech for another day.” He also hinted at future policy on weapons purchasing that might shift. But on Tuesday his remarks focused closely on cultural issues that have been at the center of his tenure.
Among the 10 directives are also an overhaul of the Pentagon Inspector General, which has for long been reviewing Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss sensitive military details, and the military’s equal opportunity programs meant to respond to reports of harassment and discrimination.
Another former senior defense official who spoke to people in the room said the speech was “received as fairly neutral and expected in terms of his views.”
The former senior official said while it’s true there are sometimes frivolous complaints to the IG or EO offices that should be addressed, or issues with the processes, “you have to wonder what the second and third order effects of that will be.” It’s likely, they said, that there will be a “backsliding” in handling things like sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.
“I would assume they’ll still investigate anything money related, if a soldier gets killed that’s going to be investigated, so really I think what this is, is people are sick and tired of not being able to make inappropriate or sexually explicit jokes at the staff meetings,” the former official said. The official also said it would largely protect general officers more from complaints by their troops, which if Hegseth is “not careful, could put him sideways with his base.”
Hegseth framed the broader set of policies he was promoting as part of a broader ending of “woke” policies put in place by prior administrations.
“This administration has done a great deal from Day 1 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,” he said.
“As I’ve said before, and will say again, we are done with that shit.”
Written with reports from CNN, The Hill