Victor Davis Hanson: Pete Hegseth Delivered the Military Turnaround Washington Said Was Impossible

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🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The criticisms against Sec. of War Pete Hegseth are “entirely political,” and anyone could have said the same things about “the Obama and Biden administration—and much more egregiously.” Hegseth has turned the U.S. military around in ways no one thought was possible, like getting the military back to meeting all of its recruiting quotas, explains Hanson during today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” Recruitment under the Biden administration fell “some 40 to 50,000 recruits,” and former Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin’s Pentagon used excuses like “people are out of shape, in gangs, using drugs, etc.” “The real cause was, as Pete Hegseth said when he came in, that people felt that the military was not emphasizing combat, battlefield efficacy… [Now,] There is a record number of Army recruits. The military has met all of its recruiting. That is equivalent to the dramatic revolution on the southern border. Nobody thought we could close the border. We did. Nobody thought we could get recruitment back. Pete Hegseth did,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words:” 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you look at what Pete Hectseth has actually done, it was long overdue, and he's doing it very well.
0:06.0	There is a record number of army recruits.
0:09.0	The military has met all of its recruiting.
0:12.0	That is equivalent to the dramatic revolution on the southern border.
0:17.0	Nobody thought we could close the border. We did.
0:19.0	Nobody thought we could get recruitment back. Pete Hexseth did.
0:21.6	And the criticism against him has two themes. It's entirely political and it's not symmetric.
0:27.6	Everything they said about Pete Hexeth in a negative context could have been applied to both the Obama and Biden administration and much more egregiously.
0:39.2	Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.
0:52.5	A lot of officials in the Trump
0:55.5	cabinet are under a lot of criticisms, as we'd expect from the left. But one has, I think,
1:02.6	both got more criticism and more unfair criticism than any other cabinet member. And that's Pete
1:08.4	Hexeth, the Secretary of War, the newly renamed Department
1:13.0	of Defense. Let's just review a little bit his record because it does not justify the level
1:20.1	of invective that the left, and even some people on the right in Congress and the Republican
1:24.6	Party have unfairly attacked him. We were told during the Biden
1:29.5	administration that the recruitment for the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, and even in one case,
1:37.8	I think one year the Marines was off some 40 to 50,000 recruits. And the Pentagon's reaction under Secretary of Defense,
1:46.7	Lloyd Austin, was, as we heard this echoed
1:49.5	by a lot of the four-star admirals and generals,
1:53.0	well, people are out of shape.
1:55.0	They're in gangs.
	...

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