Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “Restoring the warrior ethos is critical, and I think we’ve seen that already in the recruiting numbers. I think we’ve seen an enthusiasm and excitement from young men and women who want to join the military actively because they are interested in being a part of the finest fighting force the world has to offer and not doing a lot of other things that serve, oftentimes too often, to divide or distract. It’s about readiness, it’s about staying focused.
And I think you’ve seen that from a lot of the executive orders the President has issued that we have echoed. There can be confusion about that, but from our perspective, why do you get rid of something like DEI? Because from our perspective, it’s been certain it served a purpose of dividing the force as opposed to uniting the force.
And this is something I’ve said quite publicly and what I want to be is transparent with this building and everyone who serves here. Say the same thing in public that we say in private, which I hope you’ll find from us. I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is our diversity is our strength. I think our strength is our unity.
Our strength is our shared purpose, regardless of our background, regardless of how we grew up, regardless of our gender, regardless of our race. In this department, we will treat everyone equally, we will treat everyone with fairness, we will treat everyone with respect, and we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission. That’s how it has been, that’s how it will be.”