There is quite a bit of noise that is distracting from the real-world accomplishments of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Washington insiders love to talk palace intrigue and about issues that do not matter to most Americans. The bottom line is that this new administration has made America safer, while the Defense Department has fixed many of the problems imposed on the military by the Biden administration.
Hegseth has a resume that was built for the job. He was deployed on active duty serving our nation in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It is a breath of fresh air to have a leader who served with honor in the military, including two Bronze Stars and other military awards, and who enjoys spending time with active-duty military in the field. Much like Congress needs more citizen legislators, it is important for the military to have a leader that our armed forces can look to as somebody with real-world experience defending our nation.
The attraction of having Hegseth in charge has created a feeling that has drawn record numbers of young American people to enlist. According to the Defense Department, since November 6, 2024, the U.S. military has seen the highest recruiting percentage achieved in 30 years.” Just this accomplishment alone should be reported more as a positive accomplishment of this administration, yet the left-leaning mainstream media seems to want to focus on noise.
Conservatives believe that our military should be solely recruiting on merit, not using social engineering to change the military in a way that does not make America safer. The “Restore America’s Fighting Force” task force is an effort to abolish DEI and move toward a merit-based policy that is color blind. Nobody wants race-based or sex-based discrimination in the Armed Forces, therefore abolishing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at DoD will restore unit cohesion and keep our armed forces ready. DEI is flat-out discrimination and violates the idea of merit-based hiring.
Another great accomplishment that speaks to restoring freedom is the rehiring of military personnel who were discriminated against for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. The Associated Press reported on March 5, 2025, “roughly 650 Marines and Army soldiers who were forced out of the military for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine have so far expressed interest in returning to the force under an executive order from President Donald Trump, officials said this week.” This represents a small percentage of the many military personnel who were kicked out thanks to the Biden administration, but shows that the new leadership at the Department of Defense is trying to right the wrongs of the Biden years.
Also, there has been some great work in reducing duplication at the DoD and shifting money from the woke Biden priorities to warfighting. The DoD announced that they “found nearly $6 billion potential savings for reinvestment within the Department of Defense” and have “methodically reduced our workforce to optimize the Pentagon for our warfighters.” They ended $50 billion in waste on woke Biden initiatives and ended “climate change” funding that has zero to do with the military’s charge.
HEGSETH DIRECTS NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY
Another accomplishment of the first 100 days of Trump and Hegseth at the Defense Department is to reduce money going from American taxpayers abroad. Hegseth has led an effort to get Europeans to take on the load of the defense of Ukraine. Breaking Defense reported on April 11, 2025, “led by the UK and Germany, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) has committed to an extraordinary wave of new military aid packages for Kyiv” to the tune of about $24 billion. In addition, European nations are being pushed to spend 5% of GDP to defend their own nations, rather than U.S. taxpayers footing the bill.
While the D.C chattering class loves to talk about Signal groups and inside-the-beltway gossip, Hegseth is putting points on the board while showing why he was a great pick to lead the department.
Brian Darling is former Counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
