Hegseth Recaps 100 Days of DOD Accomplishments During Speech at War College

“The time of the United States … being the sole guarantor of European security has passed. It’s long overdue,” Hegseth said.

The secretary also spoke of U.S. deterrence in the Middle East, including support for Israel and the Defense Department’s lethal operations against Houthi terrorists.

Additionally, Hegseth detailed the strong bonds being reaffirmed with numerous allied and partner countries throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

“At every step, we are carrying out our strategy of increasing deterrence against the Communist Chinese,” he said.

“Under the leadership of President [Donald J.] Trump, the message to our adversaries … has been undeniably clear: America is back,” he added.

Hegseth concluded his remarks by stating that America and its national defense have begun a new golden age and that the students about to graduate each represent the future of the military.

“You will set the standard,” he told those in attendance.

“We’re counting on you, and I know that you will deliver at each and every step with distinction.”

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Watch:

Remarks by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Army War College (As Delivered) (DOD)

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Who dialed up Thunderstruck? I didn’t choose it, but I like it. Please take your seats. It might have to become SOP. Well, good morning warriors. Warriors in the profession of arms. Others chose to be doctors and lawyers and other honorable professions. You chose to be warriors, leaders of men, leaders of our best men and women.

It’s an honor to stand before you today amongst so many distinguished guests, congressman, Brigadier General Scott Perry, a graduate of this course as well. Thank you for being here, sir. This is your district also. It’s about so many senior leaders, so many accomplished warriors, so many people who have given so much to this great nation.

As was mentioned, the Army War College is one of the vital military institutions in our country, helping our leaders advance at the strategic level. I want to thank everyone here that’s a part, the teachers and the staff, support staff, everyone that makes it work. The work here helps to forge the next generation of military senior leaders.

Carlisle doesn’t run without all of you. And I know a lot of you are soon looking out for your next assignments, congratulations. I’m here today to mark the first 100 days of the Trump administration and share what we have accomplished so far at the Department of Defense.

When President Trump called me to take this job, he told me first — he told me two things.

The first was, Pete, you’re going to have to be tough as shit — tough. Boy, he was not kidding on that one. This job requires a steel spine and that’s fine. We’re doing the work of the American people and the American warfighter.

But second, the president said to me, I want you to restore the warrior ethos of our military, full stop.

And so that is exactly what I have set about to do all 100 days. Fighting for you is the privilege of a lifetime, a deployment of a lifetime. And from day one, and each 100 of those days, our overriding objectives have been clear: restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military and reestablishing deterrence.

Restoring the warrior ethos is one — is the most fundamental of those three. Everything starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield.

We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. And refocusing on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.

One of the early actions we did was to commission a rapid force-wide review of military standards, fitness standards, training standards, physical standards, gender neutral standards for combat roles.

To be the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force, you have to set and maintain high standards for our men and women in uniform. High, equal and unwavering.

To be lethal, you have to trust that the warrior alongside you in battle or the troops fighting in the unit that many of you will lead are capable, truly physically capable of doing what is necessary under fire.

You need to be fit not fat, sharp not shabby. Especially our leaders. And that’s why we’re reviewing how the department has maintained standards in the past, especially the last four years, and whether those standards have dropped formally or informally.

We’re also welcoming back former service members who were wrongly forced to leave the military. More than 8,700 service members were involuntarily separated for not taking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. Others were more informally pushed out or decided to get out. We are welcoming actively back those warriors of conscience.

We’ve sent letters out; we’re seeking them out. We want them back. They never should have been forced back, and we hope they come back quickly. And our personnel and readiness department is working in real time to make that process more and more efficient, more and more direct every single day.

And as we welcome those warriors back, we’re giving wokeness the boot. We’ve said goodbye to the harmful effects of woke culture and so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

We’re removing DEI content, eliminating quotas, ensuring recruitment, retention and promotions are based on performance, not immutable characteristics.

DEI is dead at DOD.

We’re building a merit-based culture that promotes and rewards individual initiative, excellence and hard work.

We’re also working hard to protect command declining. We’re going to be reviewing IG and EO processes that too often are weaponized against commanders in formations.

I can’t tell you how many men and women I hear from about to take battalion or brigade leadership or wing leadership, you name it, who feel like they’re walking on eggshells because of processes that were put in place that undermine a commander’s ability to lead. We are reviewing that all.

We’re also optimizing the civilian workforce, ensuring that we have the right employees in the right roles, at the right time to support our warfighters. We’re doing this by voluntary means, to the greatest extent possible, through offerings like voluntary early retirement and separation initiatives.

We’re also ending low productivity telework and remote work culture. Teams work best when they work together in person, butts in seats, not on Zoom.

We’re making accountability and high performance the watchwords for the department. At all levels we expect employees to deliver results and respond to leadership needs. Their incentives and their performance plans, we believe, quickly and in real time will reflect that.

It’s a lot of change very quickly. Now as you may have noticed, the media likes to call it chaos. We call it overdue.

How are the men and women responding to this — to this call? Well, I can tell you personally it’s going better than we could have ever expected.

This department, and you know it, across the joint force is filled with patriots who want nothing more than to focus — be laser focused on serving their country. And that’s why retention is rebounding as well, big time, in real time.

But one of the clearest metrics so far is actually coming from outside the military. The enthusiasm of young Americans in particular is off the charts.

You know firsthand how challenging it has been to recruit in recent years. We faced a legitimate recruiting crisis where we couldn’t recruit enough men and women into the military, so we lowered the amount required and still didn’t meet the amount of people required in recruitment.

That’s over. Over the last few months, the Army has had its best recruiting numbers since 2010. The Navy is on track to have its best recruiting year since 2002, before many of the newest recruits were even born.

I cannot tell you how many texts and calls I get, members of my staff get that get referred to me of people who had ruled out in their family military service and are now, because of President Trump and his leadership, enthusiastic about going to boot camp or OCS and serving their nation.

The other branches are on track to well exceed their targets as well. It is a recruiting renaissance in America of America’s best and brightest.

When our standards are high, when the mission is clear, when we prioritize warfighting over wokeness, that energizes the young men and women of our country, the very patriots over this American experiment we have always needed.

They’re proud of their country, they’re proud of our military. And like generations before them, they will rise to the challenge set before us.

As leaders, all of us, all we have to do is keep raising the bar and putting the mission and our people first. That’s reviving the warrior ethos.

The second objective is rebuilding the military. You’ve all served long enough to see the downward trajectory of readiness in our forces.

President Trump promised to reverse that decline and that reversal is well underway just 100 days in. He has declared and delivered on the beginnings of a generational investment in rebuilding our military, much like Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s.

Our goal is to put the best systems in the hands of warfighters to ensure that, as leaders, you have the systems that support what you need for maximum lethality. You should never be in a fair fight. That’s our job.

First, we are rapidly moving to — moving ahead on one of the president’s key campaign promises, which is a Golden Dome for America, a nationwide missile defense system to protect Americans from the threat of nuclear, hypersonic and conventional weapons here in our homeland.

Another incredibly exciting program is the newly announced and already launched F-47. It’ll fly faster, further, more stealthy and more lethal than any fighter jet in the history of mankind.

When the president signed that I was standing right next to him, I thought of my kids and my grandkids who will benefit from the projection of power that we’re investing in right now. It sends a very clear message to our allies; we’re not going anywhere. And to our enemies, we will be able to project power around the globe for decades to come.

These investments are not just in Golden Dome and F-47. Historic investments in the border, in hypersonics, in long-range drones and shipbuilding, in modernization, you name it, we’re investing in it. Taken together, these programs mean that we will be able to strike anywhere anytime while our citizens at home will be protected from the worst that our enemies could possibly throw at us, defending the homeland.

But it’s not just these marquee programs. Over the past 100 days, we’ve been assessing the department from top to bottom to ensure that we’re getting more, faster, better and more efficient. Last month, we published guidance to the acquisition workforce — sounds wonky but it’s very important — reinforcing the software acquisition pathway as our preferred model. We have to be able to get what we need and when we need it.

And just this week we began reviewing all 72 active major defense acquisition programs. As President Trump outlined in his executive order on defense acquisition, we must have high performing mission aligned programs at every level. We’re also strengthening our defense industrial base, which has sadly been neglected over the last four years.

We’re establishing a new munitions war room, investing in expanding critical mineral production, including rare earth elements, heavy rare earth elements, light rare earth elements, all the things we need that need to be made at home or by our allies and partners. And President Trump has created an Office of Shipbuilding — not the Navy, not at the Defense Department, but in the White House, to restore our maritime industrial base.

We’re also making our military more efficient, meeting the warfighters’ needs in the most cost-effective manner and reallocating savings to our most mission critical areas. That’s why we went through an exercise of finding 8 percent reductions across services. Of course, the media ran with it and called them cuts. No, this is how you plan and prioritize as you look where you can do more with less and you shift out old priorities and move in new maximum efficiency, focusing on what you need now and in the future.

Through our partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, earlier this month, we identified $5.1 billion in savings and that’s just the beginning.

We’re ending contracts for business process consulting, enterprise cloud IT services and duplicative IT services — massive contracts that no one ever looks at, or people push a lot of paper and make a lot of PowerPoints and give a lot of consulting work, but it doesn’t manifest into anything meaningful for the warfighters.

So, we can use that money for better health care and mission critical programs, from process to people, from consultants to corporals. The bottom line is this, we are rebuilding the world’s greatest fighting force for the challenges ahead of us. We’re prioritizing what works and cutting what does not. And yes, as the president announced from the Oval Office, we will have the first $1 trillion DOD budget.

What’s the reason for that? Well, one, we’re digging out of a big hole that the previous administration left, cratering our military and its capabilities and not investing properly — frankly, being reckless and irresponsible. Not just around the world with our image, but with what we invested in and did not invest in. But second, because we live in a dangerous world of growing threats.

It’s not about a dollar amount and how much you spend; it’s about ensuring what you spend matches the threats; that your capabilities match the threats. The president has charged me with doing that. Every single day through our budget process and our planning process that’s what we’re focused on. Working with INDOPACOM and our COCOM commanders at the tip of the spear to understand what they believe they need and delivering it.

When your adversaries know that your military is filled with warriors, and their logistics capabilities are robust, and your warfighters have the most advanced weapon systems known to man, they’re less likely to challenge you on the battlefield, which is the point. Which leads to our third objective, reestablishing deterrence after four years of deferred maintenance under the Biden administration.

Most importantly, and you saw it from my first visit, you saw it from the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “Razin’” Caine, his first visit coming up on Saturday. As we are securing our borders first, after decades of securing other people’s borders in far-off places, we are securing ours after a reckless invasion of over 20 million people and we have no idea who they are and why they’re coming here has invaded our country. That ends.

From day one we have surged posture to control the border and update our military planning at DOD to protect the United States from cross border threats. Foreign terrorist organizations designated the cartels, drugs, human trafficking, violence, death — under the Trump administration it ends. Under this Defense Department, we get 100 percent operational control of our border. It was started on day one, will continue through day 100 all the way through the entirety of the Trump administration.

Working with our partners at DHS and CBP, we’ve already seen a — if you’re being generous, 97 percent reduction. In reality it’s a 99 percent reduction in illegal border crossings compared to the same period in 2024. Monthly encounters have dropped from 250,000 encounters, most of which are false asylum claims.

You also have the known gotaways and the unknown gotaways. So, it’s much higher than 250,000. You don’t know where most of these people are coming from. Now to the trickle of a few thousands, all of which — most of which we’re interdicting and engaging because of our force posture on the border in real time.

It starts with people; it moves to infrastructure and surveillance. And our American troops, you should see their morale on the border. It’s incredible, when you’re defending your own homeland with robust and sufficient assets, and you are able to interdict…it changes the whole game.

We just designated a trial area for a new national defense area where our troops now, instead of just looking at the border with binoculars and wondering who that person is and hoping CBP interdicts them, they now temporarily take action to temporarily detain those folks and hand them over to CBP, because of that authorized zone.

It’s a sea change from the open season that was the previous administration. But not just here at home. In three of the most strategically important regions in the world, we are increasing allied burden sharing while we increase deterrence. America First doesn’t mean America alone. It means we expect our allies to step up to be true force multipliers for freedom. This approach ensures we achieve peace through strength.

First in Europe, our allies are finally, thanks to President Trump in the first administration and again in these first 100 days, following America’s call for European leadership and ownership of continental security. We’ve transferred US leadership of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to the UK and to Germany.

We’ve obtained commitments from Poland, one of many model allies, the Baltics to spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense. We’ve made the same call to other allies. 2 percent is not enough considering the threats you face, 3 percent, 4 percent, 5 percent. And we’ve made progress with major European powers who are setting initial targets. Even to one I spoke to just this morning; to increase their defense spending.

The time of the United States — you’re in Pennsylvania, you’re in our beautiful country — being the sole guarantor of European security has passed. It’s long overdue, Europe has to step up, fund its military and lead. NATO needs to step up.

Second, in the Middle East, we’re pursuing stability and deterrence to the threats that exist there. President Trump has made it clear that America is fully committed to the security of our great allies in Israel. Just days after his inauguration, the DOD, under President Trump’s leadership, released the shipment of 2,000 Mk 48 bombs to Israel. Critical munitions that the Biden administration had blocked. The Defense Department has also delivered three new F-35s to Israel with another three aircraft on the way to reinforce Israel’s self-reliance and pursue President Trump’s goal of achieving peace through strength.

In Yemen, the Defense Department is executing lethal operations against Houthi terrorists. Our forces have struck hundreds of targets and decimated Houthi leadership, substantially reducing their capabilities and the threat to U.S. ships in the Red Sea and across and through the BAM. We have demonstrated America’s commitment to defending our interests and restoring freedom of navigation, which we will do and are doing quickly.

This is a clear, limited mission executed with ruthlessness, full stop. We will run our ships through that BAM. And our message to the Houthis has been clear from the beginning, allow us to sail our ships through and we’ll stop shooting at you. Until then, you’re going to feel the pain. And I’ll tell you, the Houthis are feeling the pain.

We have demonstrated that any aggression against Americans will be met with decisive action, unlike what that region saw under the Biden administration. But this is not nation building; this is not land wars; this is not endless wars; this is not regime change. This is clear eyed American national interests executed decisively and overwhelmingly.

Third and most importantly, we are deterring Communist China in the Indo-Pacific and around the world. To deliver peace in this region we’re delivering a more forward regional force posture. We’re supporting allies and partners; allies and partners are our force multipliers as they strengthen their own capabilities, including in Taiwan.

We’re also connecting US allies and partners to produce a stronger and more resilient and more capable network of partnerships. That’s why you’ve seen our travel out there and there will be a lot more of it. In fact, in March, I took my first trip to the Indo-Pacific as Secretary, the first trip to Guam in 20 years from a Defense Secretary.

I traveled to the Philippines to meet with President Marcos and his Security Secretary of National Defense. We reaffirmed the long-standing strength of US-Philippines alliance, a key piece in our strategy to deter and counter the Communist Chinese.

We also traveled to Japan on that same trip, and later on a trip that a few of you may have seen, to Panama. At each stop we announced new bilateral exercises, increased cooperation, foreign military sales deals, and demonstrated our renewed commitment to President Trump’s vision of peace through strength.

In the Philippines, we are deploying more advanced capabilities including NMESIS anti-ship missiles. In Japan, we announced Phase 1 of upgrading U.S. Forces Japan into a full-blown joint force’s headquarters. In Panama we secured a framework for first and free of Panama Canal passage for U.S. military vessels and auxiliary vessels, as well as the additional presence of U.S. troops stationed through both sides of the Panama Canal.

As I said then and I will reaffirm today, the president pledged to take back the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, and with our partners we’re doing just that right in our own backyard. At every step, we are carrying out our strategy to increase deterrence against the Communist Chinese.

As I’ve said before, in these places, when you meet with leaders who want to be with America, who believe in what America can do, have watched us when we’re strong. They’re making in many cases and in many places a binary choice. It is either by, with and through the Americans or with the communist Chinese. In the Indo-Pacific around the world, but specifically in the Indo-Pacific and in our hemisphere, you can see it. You can see it in the eyes of allies and partners.

You can see it in the influence underneath the surface. They want to be with us, but they need to see strength, and they need to see leadership. And that’s what President Trump has provided in spades, not just in words, but in deeds, in action and in deterrence. So, as Europe shoulders more of the burden in continental security that frees up resources for us to focus on countering the malign influence of the Communist Chinese where it matters most.

Under the leadership of President Trump, the message to our adversaries in these first 100 days in office has been undeniably clear — America is back.

At the Defense Department that means no more distractions, no more social engineering, no more climate change worship, no more electric tanks, no more gender confusion, no more pronouns, no more excuses, no more quotas, no more woke bullshit that undermines commanders and command climates.

We are laser focused on our mission of warfighting. We are color blind, and we are merit based. We’re restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence, end, full stop.

Enemy aggression will be met swiftly and harshly. We’re beginning a new golden age of America and a golden age of national defense.

We have a bumper crop of new recruits, new planes, new missile defense systems on the way, allies increasing their defense spending and adversaries on their heels. Today, on this beautiful day, we have a brand-new class soon to be Army War College students about to graduate. You, all of you, are the future of our military.

You will lead these new recruits, eager, optimistic, young, ready and soon to be trained. They will look to you. You will lead the brigades, the ships, the groups; you will execute our tactical, operational and strategic objectives all around the globe. You will set the standard. We’re counting on you, and I know that you will deliver at each and every step with distinction.

God bless you. God speed to all of our warriors and thank you for having me today.