Pete Hegseth Said Our Military Is 'Fat' and 'Woke.' Here's What Drill Instructors Say
We asked the experts who train our troops about Trump's and Hegseth’s plan.
On Tuesday, America’s highest-ranking military commanders convened in Quantico, Va., for a meeting whose energy alternated between a middle management performance evaluation and a high school pep rally at the MAGA Military Institute for White Boys. Surrounded by the highest-ranking officers in the U.S. armed forces, Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump and the “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced their plans for the fighting machine they received as a gift from Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and white America.
They’re going to make the military great again.
“Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military’s role in domestic affairs,” the Associated Press reports, adding:
He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to ‘woke’ culture and announced new directives for troops that include ‘gender-neutral’ or ‘male-level’ standards for physical fitness.
The dual messages underscored the Trump administration’s efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but to enlist military resources for the president’s priorities and decidedly domestic purposes, including quelling unrest and violent crime.
Black Americans are overrepresented in the U.S. armed forces but underrepresented in the military leadership. But even before Trump’s inauguration, Trump promised to “rebuild America’s depleted military” by ending DEI in the Department of Defense. “The Army no longer reflects national demographics to the degree that it did before 1974 when the draft was eliminated,” Project 2025 whitesplained. “Woke bureaucrats at the Pentagon force troops to attend ‘training’ seminars about ‘white privilege.’” Since then, Trump and Hegseth have fired many of the highest-ranking Black and women military leaders, replacing them with less qualified white men. While Trump ranted about Biden, Venezuela, immigrants and DEI on Tuesday, Hegseth railed against “fat generals,” DEI, political correctness and even beards.
“Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the ‘Woke Department,’” said Peter Tequila (What? If the man affectionately known as “Ol’ Hennessy” Hegseth can make up nicknames, then so can I). “The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level… If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign.”
Still, aside from the valor and bravery displayed during his battle with bone spurs and leading the volunteer unit that fought in the infamous Charge of the White Brigade on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump has exactly zero years of military combat experience. Trump’s “secretary of war” is a decorated combat veteran and PTSD* survivor who was flagged by fellow service members for ties with white supremacist groups (*Hegseth was diagnosed with Post Tequila Shot Drunkenness during numerous near-death experiences liberating shots of liquor from shot glasses). Of course, just because Trump and Hegseth lack knowledge, expertise and experience doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong.
Is the military too woke? Are overweight warfighters weighing our troops down? Are women warriors’ inability to do as many pushups as their male counterparts preventing our troops from protecting our beloved country? Would we be safer if our soldiers shaved?
Instead of asking these two highly decorated leaders (spray tan is a decoration), ContrabandCamp spoke to people who actually train the troops. We interviewed three active duty service members in three different branches of the U.S. military, including:
A 13-year veteran Marine Corps drill instructor.
A former National Guardsman who enlisted for active duty in the U.S. Army, became a drill sergeant and now serves as a recruiter.
An active duty military training instructor (essentially a drill sergeant) in the U.S. Air Force.
Surprisingly, none of the three were even aware of the high-level meeting happening in Quantico. So, instead of summarizing Trump and Hegseth’s statement, we asked them to watch the entire MAGA military rally and asked them to respond to quotes from the event
Here’s how they replied:
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