Zito interviews Hegseth

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/3389600/pete-hegseth-mission-reshape-military-war-college-speech/

Hegseth turns to his mission to reshape the military

Salena ZitoApril 23, 2025 6:28 pm

CARLISLE, Pennsylvania — Minutes after giving a policy-rich address to senior-level military students, faculty, and staff at the Army War College here in rural Cumberland County, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethsaid in an interview with the Washington Examiner that he relished the occasion to detail the Pentagon’s focus going forward.

“The opportunity to articulate the focus of the department, looking out at a group of men and women who are the future leaders of our formations, was a neat opportunity,” Hegseth said.

The speech, which drew over 1,000 attendees, emphasized the need to meet folks where they are concerning the future of the military.

Hegseth admitted that his first months at the helm of the nearly 3 million-member department have been challenging, saying President Donald Trumpwarned him, “‘Pete, you’re going to have to be tough as s***.’ Boy, he was not kidding on that one.”

Hegseth’s speech was laser-focused on restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military, deterring adversaries like China, and leaving “wokeness and weakness behind.”


Carlisle, Pennsylvania — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the Army War College while marking 100 days of the Trump administration. (Shannon M. Venditti / for the Washington Examiner)
Gone will be the worship of climate change and personal pronouns. “No more woke bulls***,” he said.

Hegseth, sitting in the same room where Dwight Eisenhower gave remarks as a former president in 1966, said the military would be done with all this woke quota garbage: “They don’t know how to react to it or whether to fully embrace it and whether their commanders will support them in fully embracing it. So our job is to change the entirety of the culture so that they can truly lead with a warfighter ethos,” he said.

“We’re still changing the overall dynamic. I could see a lot of people in attendance nodding their heads in agreement,” Hegseth told the Washington Examiner.

Hegseth said that because he’d come to the Pentagon as an outsider with a mandate of change from Trump, he has become a target of resistance, not just from Democrats or the press but also the massive Department of Defense bureaucracy, which is so big it is considered the world’s largest employer. Over 26,000 military and civilian leaders alone work in the complex.

Many have accused Hegseth in the past two days of sharing information about strikes in Yemen through an encrypted group chat, firing close aides, and running a chaotic ship at the Pentagon. NPR even reported he was about to be fired, which Trump vehemently denied.

Hegseth is resolute in the face of criticism but not dismissive.

“When you boil it down, it is a reaction to us advancing the president’s agenda, which is a threat to this town, which is a threat to Washington, D.C. And so if you’re here for the right reasons and you’re not compromised and you’re willing to be courageous and bold, you are a threat,” he said.

Hegseth said from the minute Trump chose him, it has been clear that is how he is viewed inside the White House.


Carlisle, Pennsylvania — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sits down with Salena Zito for an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner. (Shannon M. Venditti / for the Washington Examiner)
“They knew that from the minute he chose me and through my entire confirmation process, from the minute I walked into the building to the first initiatives we took, that is DEI is dead at DOD,” he said of his February order to nuke all digital DEI content at the Pentagon.

Hegseth said if he slow-rolled the process, he would have failed to meet the moment: “This is the president and this is his agenda. We’re going to execute right now, and we’re not going to apologize for it. And he’s got our back. Let’s go.”

Hegseth said he understands the consequences. “I know that puts a target on my back, and people don’t really know this about me, but I’ve spent years in Washington running veterans organizations. I’m not a D.C. person, and I think that’s an asset for me,” he said.

“The other thing that makes me a threat is I literally wrote a book on the subject of reform the year before I came in. I care about this stuff. This is what the war fighters are telling me. This is what’s happened to our DOD. And then we got to walk in and be like, how about we do this stuff that the president wants us to do and make it happen? And that’s why we were not surprised by the recruiting surge,” he said.

All of the students attending his speech were senior, field-grade officers and in the final stretch of the college’s strategic leadership resident program. When completed, they will be eligible for major command leadership positions.

HEGSETH PRAISES DEFENSE DEPARTMENT’S FIRST 100 DAYS

“Fighting for you has been the privilege of a lifetime — a deployment of a lifetime,” Hegseth told the students, adding, “From Day One, our overriding objectives have been clear: restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence.”

Hegseth said, “Everything starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield,” adding that the department is working to restore the warrior ethos by refocusing the DOD on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, and standards and readiness.

The full interview will be featured in Washington Examiner Magazine next week.