U.S. President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth declared an end to “woke” culture in the military and targeted other policies of past administrations Tuesday before hundreds of top U.S. military officials who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world.
Hegseth announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness, while Trump talked about U.S. nuclear capabilities and criticized the military leaders’ previous commander in chief, former president Joe Biden.
“We must be so strong that no nation will dare challenge us, so powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us,” Trump said. “And so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us.”
Trump also used his speech as an opportunity to taunt Canada over becoming the “51st state” as he brought up the Golden Dome missile defence program he wants to build to protect the United States.
Trump said Canada called him recently asking to be covered by the proposed missile shield.
“They want to be a part of it,” he said. “I said, ‘Why don’t you just join our country, become the 51st state and you get it for free.'”
Earlier in the year, Trump had been pressuring Canada to join the United States as he threatened it with steep tariffs. Canada said it will never join the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a lengthy speech to military officials gathered in Virginia, spoke about Canada as he addressed his planned Golden Dome defence system, saying he had suggested joining the U.S. as the 51st state ‘and you get it for free.’
Gathering fuelled intense speculation
Hegseth had called military leaders to convene at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until Tuesday morning.
Hegseth’s address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honourable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.
Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fuelled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.
Admirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-centre agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.
During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”
“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.
He said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigations.
Hegseth said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”
He called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”
“People make honest mistakes and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”
Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.
A navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisors “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in [the sailor]’s decision to end his own life.”
Focus on ‘warrior ethos’
Hegseth used the platform to slam physical fitness and grooming standards, environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”
Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”
“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID-19 vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.
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Hegseth said this is is not about preventing women from serving.
“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” 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.”
Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.