By Victoria Manning | Restoration News
Peace through strength is back, and DEI is on life support.
In just his first year, War Secretary Pete Hegseth raised standards, began to eliminate racist diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, and annihilated Iran’s nuclear program. With a focus on warfighting and military readiness rather than social justice initiatives, the American military is growing stronger every day.
When Hegseth took over in January 2025, the military was missing recruitment goals. In 2020, the last year of President Trump’s first term in office, the Army recruited over 61,000 soldiers, meeting 100 percent of its goal. By 2022 with Biden in charge, recruitment shrank to 44,901. After returning to office, Pres. Trump’s War Department exceeded expectations in 2025 with over 62,050 soldiers signing up to serve.
Sailors at Norfolk Naval Base told Restoration News they were excited about the future. They respect Sec. Hegseth and praise his efforts to raise fitness standards and to put a renewed emphasis on warfighting.
Modernizing the Military
In 2023, American forces were shooting down Houthi attack drones in the Red Sea with $2.1 million missiles. The Houthi’s drones cost around $2,000 each. Sec. Hegseth recognized that these lopsided costs were bleeding the American military dry.
On July 10, 2025, the War Secretary issued a memo to end restrictive policies that hindered drone production:
“I committed to rebuild our military to match threats to capabilities. Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation . . . While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape.”
Hegseth further promised to arm combat units “with a variety of low-cost drones made by America’s world-leading engineers and AI experts.”
The War Secretary then set expectations for military leaders saying, “Next year I expect to see this capability integrated into all relevant combat training, including force-on-force drone wars.” Specifically, twelve vendors have been asked to produce 30,000 drones at $5,000 each by July 2026. He expects hundreds of thousands more by 2027, funded in the One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year.
Utilizing drone warfare on a large scale is long overdue and will be a game changer for America’s warfighting capabilities.
No More Social Justice Warriors
One of Sec. Hegseth’s first directives was to demand merit-based, color-blind policies—eradicating race and sex based preferences that infected the military under previous administrations. The racist and sexist practices of promoting people based on immutable characteristics were prohibited. A focus on equal opportunities rather than equal outcomes was ordered by the Secretary, but more work must be done on this issue.
At RestoreTheMilitary.com, Restoration of America is documenting the actions of woke senior military leaders weakening the military by pushing harmful DEI and social justice narratives. One such leader, fired in April 2025, is Air Force General Timothy Haugh. In a 2022 memo to airmen, Haugh said leaders must “see strength in differences, and recognize their own biases.” He said he would be purposeful with diversity in recruiting and hiring practices—in other words he’ll hire based on race and sex. At the end of his memo his call to action was to hand write: “Rise Up!”
Over the last year, more than a dozen senior officers have either been fired or retired. Yet more action must be taken to eradicate dozens of military leaders who’ve pushed DEI initiatives, like Space Force Maj. Gen. Devin Pepper. Gen. Pepper remains in his high-level position as Deputy Chief of Staff at NATO in Norfolk, VA despite pushing dangerous divisive rhetoric at a previous command.
Just one example of Pepper’s extremism: he asked leaders to “read an article written by Daisy Auger-Dominguez (the Chief People Officer at VICE Media Group, and Vice-Chair of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood Federation) titled, ‘Getting Over Your Fear of Talking About Diversity.’ The article suggests leaders read certain books to educate themselves about ‘issues of women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups.'”
Sec. Hegseth is leading by example—even participating in early morning workouts with troops—a much needed change. Yet, untrustworthy, social justice leaders remain, and they must be eradicated from the military—not advanced. Two of these leaders featured at RestoreTheMilitary.com were recently promoted.
Despite pushing DEI initiatives and speaking at Pride month events, Col. Matthew Reilman was just promoted to Brigadier General in Nov. 2025. He isn’t the only Air Force senior leader who recently received advanced rank, Col. George Hall Sebren was promoted to Brigadier General in Jan. 2026. Sebren authored a 21-page research paper claiming the Air Force wasn’t utilizing enough diversity when promoting officers.
As long as senior officers like these men and others remain in leadership positions, DEI has not been eradicated.
Peace Through Strength
The American military is once again respected and feared on the world stage. Through both diplomacy and military strength, momentous events have rocked the world.
With President Trump’s negotiating skills and the Pentagon’s unwavering resolve—the world is changing. Hamas is no longer launching attacks at Israel, Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been annihilated, and Nicholas Maduro—a wanted brutal dictator with an outstanding U.S. indictment—was extracted and arrested.
America will no longer allow itself to be taken advantage of by NATO. For years, the United States contributed far more to the alliance than its partners—a problem President Trump has been raising for nearly a decade. “We are getting ripped off by every country in NATO, where they pay virtually nothing, most of them. And we’re paying the majority of the costs,” he said.
In 2014, only three NATO members met the alliance’s benchmark of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP but today 31 nations meet or exceed that threshold. The U.S. still funds 62 percent of NATO’s total defense spending, but now more countries are stepping up to contribute more.
In his first year as War Secretary, Pete Hegseth has redirected the U.S. military toward its core mission—winning wars. By restoring recruitment, prioritizing readiness over ideology, modernizing warfare through cost-effective drone technology, the Pentagon is once again focused on strength, merit, and lethality.
Coupled with President Trump’s assertive leadership on the world stage, these reforms have reestablished American military credibility, deterred adversaries, and reinforced the principle of peace through strength.
_
Victoria Manning is a Senior Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in education freedom, immigration, and military issues. She is the author of Behind the Wall of Government Schools. Victoria served 8 years as an elected school board member and has a master’s degree in law. She also brings the perspective of a military spouse and mother to her reporting. Email Victoria HERE
Leave a Comment