Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday told a group of special operations leaders and service members that the U.S. Military under President Trump is eschewing “wokeness” in favor of a renewed emphasis on “Warrior Ethos.”
Hegseth delivered the keynote address at the Special Operations Forces Week 2025 conference in Tampa, Florida, focusing on three key points: rebuilding the military, reestablishing deterrence, and most importantly, restoring the Warrior Ethos.
“Everything starts and ends with warriors from training to the battlefield,” Hegseth explained. “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind.”
“No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that shit,” the former Army National Guard officer declared to applause and cheers.
Hegseth added that the military will now be “focused on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness.”
Special Operations Forces Week is “an annual conference for the international SOF community to learn, connect, and honor its members,” according to the event’s official website.
During his speech, Hegseth credited President Donald Trump as the driving force behind the military’s new direction and noted that since his election, military recruitment numbers have skyrocketed.
The reason Trump was elected, he said, was because “he leads with common sense.”
“Our combat formations don’t need to look like Harvard University,” Hegseth continued. “They need to look like killers, trained and skilled and prepared.”
The secretary added that standards in the military “need to be high and gender neutral” to be successful.
“If you can do the job, you’re in that formation, and if you can’t, you are not,” he said.
The Defense Secretary also touted Trump’s proposal for an ambitious Golden Dome missile defense system which would protect the U.S. from ballistic and hypersonic missile threats from our adversaries.
“Golden Dome for America is a part of that,” he said of the project, which is poised to receive $25 billion as part of the GOP’s reconciliation bill.
Hegseth praised the efforts of special operators, saying “no one brings easy problems to the Oval Office, but SOF brings solutions.”
“We don’t fight because we hate what’s in front of us. We fight because we love what’s behind us,” Hegseth said.
“Under the leadership of Trump, the message to our adversaries has been undeniably clear: America is back,” he added. “And SOF amplifies this message and carries it to all of the far-flung corners of the world. It’s a pivotal mission that is laser-focused on war fighting.”