Hegseth, Trump rally troops, roll out antiwoke standards

War Secretary Pete Hegseth shared several protocol changes on Tuesday while addressing a crowd of military leaders gathered at Quantico, Va. The era of hypersensitive, politically correct leadership is ending, and if this disappoints anyone, they should do the honorable thing and resign, Hegseth said. The military lost its way and became the woke department, but that all changes now, he said.

Politicians forced the military to focus on the wrong priorities for too long, and this administration planned to fix the decay it caused, he continued. Hegseth described the department as promoting too many people to meet race and gender quotas, while using psychology assessments as a guise to weed out other leaders.

Military standards must be high and equally applied between sexes, Hegseth said. If women can’t meet those standards to qualify for combat, then so be it, he said. The secretary also emphasized the importance of all military personnel maintaining physical fitness, regardless of their rank and assignments. It’s embarrassing for the military to have fat troops everywhere, from combat formations to Pentagon conference rooms, Hegseth said. From now on, everyone from privates to four-star generals must meet height and weight standards and pass the physical fitness test, he said.

What did Trump say? President Donald Trump took the stage after Hegseth and reaffirmed his plan to reestablish fundamental military principles. The military will be run on common sense and operate with the homeland as its top priority, Trump said.

The administration is investing tens of billions of dollars to update the nation’s nuclear deterrence abilities, and construction on the U.S. Golden Dome Missile Defense system has begun. The president suggested using high-crime cities in America as military training grounds and again claimed that the National Guard would enter Chicago soon. Portland, Ore., looks like a warzone, along with Democrat-run cities like San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, he said.

How are people responding? Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., slammed Trump's summoning of military leaders to Virginia, describing the event as an expensive neglect of leadership. Hegseth’s ultimatum for officers to conform to his political worldview or resign is troubling, he said Tuesday.

Trump and Hegseth are right, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote Tuesday afternoon. The U.S. military isn’t a playground for gender-bending ideology, it’s a fighting force that needs to return to mission-first readiness, she added. 

Dig deeper: Read my recent report on a West Point professor accusing the military academy of violating free speech.