More than 800 of America’s top military leaders sat silent and showed no reaction as ex-Fox News host turned Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth issued a series of new directives that will make it harder for women to serve in combat and easier for personnel to engage in hazing and bullying without repercussions at an unprecedented gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia Tuesday.
The Secretary of War — a title not used by the head of the U.S. military establishment since 1947 but revived by President Donald Trump earlier this month — told the group of admirals, generals and their senior enlisted advisers he was “ending the war on warriors” and complained that too many of their peers had been put in their roles “for the wrong reasons” including their race and gender.
Standing in front of a large American flag backdrop, he attacked by name several of the leaders’ retired peers, telling them that the department’s “compass heading” was “clear.”
“Out with the Chiarelli, the McKenzies and the Milleys and in with the Stockdales the Schwartzkopfs and the Pattons,” Hegseth said, denigrating former Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli, ex-U.S. Central Command commander and Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Army General Mark Milley, each of whom has been critical of Trump or his administration.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,” he added.
Hegseth also groused about efforts to open up combat roles to women and initiatives to “weed out so-called toxic leaders” and blamed “foolish and reckless” politicians for having “set the wrong compass” and causing the Pentagon to lose its way.
Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran who attained the rank of major in the Army National Guard but became a critic of the Pentagon’s efforts to open up military service to women, racial minorities and LGBT+ persons, said the War Department must “restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards” that are “uniform, gender neutral and high.”
He told the assembled leaders he was issuing a directive to ensure that “every designated Combat Arms” role across all branches “returns to the highest male standard only,” all but reversing a 2015 directive from then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to open all combat roles to women.
“If you do not meet the male level physical standards for combat positions … it’s time for a new position or a new profession,” 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.”
The War Secretary also claimed — without offering evidence — that the Pentagon had lowered standards “to hit racial quotas as well” and said the revised standards he was promulgating are based on what he called the “1990 test,” which compares today’s standards to those in 1990, a time when women were barred from combat roles and LGBT+ persons were banned from serving.
“The 1990s test is simple. What were the military standards in 1990 and if they have changed, tell me why was it a necessary change based on the evolving landscape of combat, or was the change due to a softening, weakening or gender based pursuit of other priorities? 1990s seems to be as good a place to start as any,” he said.
In addition to rolling back standards to make it harder for women to serve in combat, Hegseth also told military leaders he was rolling back longstanding policies meant to prevent hazing and bullying in the ranks.
He complained that Pentagon initiatives to eliminate “toxic leadership” — including racist and sexist behavior by supervisors — had effectively lowered standards and empowered complainers to attack effective leaders.
“Real, toxic leadership is endangering subordinates with low standards. Real toxic leadership is promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit. Real toxic leadership is promoting destructive ideologies that are an anathema to the Constitution and the laws of nature and nature’s God,” he said, adding later that “the definition of toxic has been turned upside down” and definitions of “bullying and hazing” have been “weaponized and bastardized.”
Under what he calls a “no more walking on eggshells policy,” he said his department would conduct “a full 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.”
Hegseth also said he was ordering reforms of the Pentagon Inspector General’s office and both military and civilian Equal Opportunity offices to “liberate” commanders and non-commissioned officers from a “weaponized” process that put “complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.”
The new process will no longer allow service members to remain anonymous to their superiors when making reports of racial discrimination or sexual harassment.
The War Secretary said his reforms would eliminate “anonymous complaints” as well as “frivolous complaints” that resulted in “smearing reputations” and “sidetracking of careers.”
“These directives are designed to take the monkey off your back and put you the leadership back in the driver’s seat,” he said.
The unprecedented confab of top defense brass brought the country’s highest-ranking military officials to Marine Corps Base Quantico, the location where the Marine Corps’ officer candidate training facility is housed in addition to training academies for the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Army Criminal Investigation Division.
It was unclear why Hegseth insisted on bringing together the massive assembly of high-ranking officials instead of using the Pentagon’s secure videoconferencing system, but the ex-television presenter was just the opening act in Tuesday’s run of show.
After traveling to the base by helicopter, Trump took the opportunity to give his own televised address to the captive audience of nonpartisan service members.
He spoke for over an hour, delivering remarks that were somnolent in tone but wildly partisan in terms of content, repeatedly bashing Democrats and the free press guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, calling them “sleezebags” and “really corrupt,” respectively.
The president also told the military leaders that the country they are sworn to defend is “under invasion from within” while suggesting that active duty forces could be used to “straighten out” cities run by Democrats.
“That’s a war too. It’s a war from within,” he said.
Trump added that he’d told Hegseth that the military should use “dangerous cities” such as Chicago as “training grounds” for troops and later bragged that an order he’d signed last month to direct Hegseth to establish a “quick reaction force” for “civil disturbances” would be “a big thing” for the assembled officers to be used against “the enemy within.”
“We have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won’t get out of control once, once you get involved at all,” he said.
