US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth caused a jolt on Wednesday with an aggressive tirade in front of cadets and noncommissioned officers at Quantico. In the keynote address at the Marine Corps base, he leaned on a discriminatory dig at transgender people to buttress the shift his department is pursuing.
The secretary thundered that under his leadership there would be no “senseless PowerPoint trainings or drag queen shows,” no diversity quotas, no pronouns, and no “identity months” within the Department of Defense, but only the “warrior ethos” would count. Hegseth condensed his take on a supposedly “woke or weak” military into a string of buzzwords: “No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.” In his view, the politician—whom the Trump administration has labeled as a “war secretary”—wanted instead “only warriors, only tough, ready, committed troops.” He also made clear in the speech that diversity in the U.S. armed forces is not important: “Diversity is not our strength. Unity is our strength,” Hegseth asserted.
The Armed Forces as the Extended Arm of the Bible’s God
The secretary also stressed his ambition to turn the U.S. military into a Christian institution. He claimed that reportedly fewer than five percent of service members identify as non-religious, implying that 95 percent believe in God. For decades, he argued, secular careerists have constrained military chaplaincy.
In his remarks he invoked several Bible verses, particularly from the Old Testament. One example was Psalm 33:12: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD” (in English translations the word often reads as “the nation” rather than “the people”). Hegseth echoed a line of thought common among Republicans: that the United States was chosen by the Christian God and, therefore, somehow more important than other nations. A conservative evangelical and self-described “Christian warrior,” he has long positioned himself within that faith tradition.
Direct link | The full speech by Pete Hegseth (the “No fatty” portion is at 6:35)
Veteran groups and former service members reacted with outrage to the address. A military veteran commented on social media that pushing women, queer people, or anyone who doesn’t fit an outdated “Only real men” fantasy would not strengthen the armed forces; it would produce a smaller, dumber army. SPARTA Pride, a coalition of queer service members and veterans, urged the Pentagon to judge people by their performance rather than their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Hegseth Rejects Trans and Gay Soldiers
Hegseth, who previously worked as a television host for the conservative network Fox News before taking the job in the Trump-leaning administration, has never hidden his hostility toward LGBTQ people. He is widely reported to be backing Donald Trump’s plan to remove all transgender people from the military (TheColu.mn reported).
He has also taken issue with openly gay service members. In a 2024 book, he described them as part of a “Marxist agenda” (TheColu.mn reported). During his time at Princeton, he once wrote that “the homosexual lifestyle is abnormal and immoral.” As of now, he has not attempted to reinstate the ban on homosexuality in the military. It is historically accurate that until 2011 it was illegal to serve openly as gay in the U.S. armed forces. (dk)
