FEBRUARY 8, 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday reiterated his core priorities for the Defense Department during a town hall meeting with service members and DOD civilians at the Pentagon.
As outlined in his Jan. 27, 2025, message to the force, Hegseth said he intends to spend the next four years working with the Defense Department to revive the warrior ethos and restore trust in the military, rebuild it by matching threats to capabilities and reestablish deterrence by defending the homeland.
“I’ve been so incredibly impressed by … the professionalism of the men and women throughout the ranks who recognize who we work for, which is the American people and the defense of our nation,” Hegseth said.
“President [Donald J.] Trump asked me to not maintain the status quo, [so] we’re going to take unconventional approaches,” Hegseth said of his working philosophy.
“We’re going to move fast, think outside the box [and] be disruptive — on purpose — to create a sense of urgency that I want to make sure exists inside this department,” he explained.
Speaking on restoring the warrior ethos, Hegseth said that there exists a necessity within DOD to “get back to basics.”
He said DOD’s job is to deter conflict and — if necessary — completely destroy, demoralize and defeat enemies of the United States. “That’s what we do,” Hegseth said.
“We do warfighting here at the Department of Defense,” he continued. “And we want to restore that through a laser focus on readiness, lethality and warfighting across the spectrum.”
Noting a recent uptick in the military’s recruiting numbers, Hegseth said that young men and women are now choosing to serve because they want to embrace such an ethos.
“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,” Hegseth said.
“It’s about readiness; it’s about staying focused,” he added.
Hegseth said DOD gathers its strength from unity.
“Our strength is our shared purpose, regardless of our background, regardless of how we grew up, regardless of our gender [and] regardless of our race,” he said.
“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,” he continued. “That’s how it has been [and] that’s how it will be,” he added.
On the topic of rebuilding the military and the industrial base, Hegseth said he has the advantage of approaching the field as an outsider who has no special or conflicted interests that would relate to the defense industrial base.
“I don’t have a background invested in any systems or services; I’m agnostic to that,” Hegseth said, adding that he’s prepared to “take a lot of arrows” if necessary.
“We need the best systems in the hands of warfighters … to deter [and] send the signal that, when the fight comes, we’re ready to win and win decisively,” Hegseth said.
The secretary also said that rebuilding the military and defense industrial base necessitates an audit of the Pentagon.
“We are going to focus heavily to ensure that — at a bare minimum, by the end of four years — the Pentagon passes a clean audit; the American taxpayers deserve that. They deserve to know where their $850 billion [goes],” Hegseth said.
“I believe we are accountable for every dollar we spend and every dollar of waste we find … is a dollar we can invest somewhere else,” he added.
On the third priority of establishing deterrence, Hegseth said that securing the country’s borders is a top priority, noting that many of the people seeking to gain entry into the U.S. are genuinely seeking a better life and have no nefarious intent to harm the country.
“We also don’t know who millions of them are, what their intentions are [and] why they’re here. That creates a very real national security threat to the country,” Hegseth said.
“Border security is national security, and … we’re going to get 100% operational control of our southern border, and that needs to be and will be a focus of this department,” he continued.
“[The president’s] charge to me was to return [DOD] to its warfighting mission at its core: warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, accountability and readiness; the things at the bedrock of what we all understand our basic mission to be,” Hegseth said.
“It’s the honor of a lifetime to come alongside you; no one will work harder,” he told the audience.
“No one’s going to … attempt to be more transparent with the American people and with you. We want to hear your feedback, and we want to hit the ground running.”
By Matthew Olay, DOD News