{"id":267360,"date":"2025-09-30T20:27:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267360\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T20:27:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:27:25","slug":"pete-hegseth-demands-troops-meet-male-level-physical-standards-rails-against-fat-troops-in-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267360\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth demands troops meet ‘male-level’ physical standards, rails against ‘fat troops’ in military"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 War Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> harangued a near-unprecedented gathering of America\u2019s top generals and admirals Tuesday, announcing that \u201cdudes with dresses\u201d were not welcome in US combat forces \u2014 and the rest must meet \u201cmale-level\u201d fitness standards to face \u201clife and death\u201d situations.<\/p>\n

If women \u2014 and \u201cweak men\u201d \u2014 don\u2019t make the grade, \u201cso be it,\u201d Hegseth said in remarks at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, it\u2019s tiring to look out at combat formations \u2014 and frankly any formations \u2014 and see fat troops,\u201d he went on. \u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading all around the world.<\/p>\n

War Secretary Pete Hegseth harangued a near-unprecedented gathering of America\u2019s top generals and admirals Tuesday, announcing that combat troops must meet \u201cmale-level\u201d fitness levels to face \u201clife and death\u201d situations. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad look, and it\u2019s not who we are!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s fitness directive will be sent out to each branch of the service and will highlight new mandates and standards for service members.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of his plan to toughen up the force \u2014 and to carry out President Trump\u2019s orders to de-woke the military, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusion, no more debris. I\u2019ve said before and will say again, we are done with that s\u2014,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Combat forces will have to do \u201creal hard\u201d physical training every day and undergo two tests each year to ensure they are up to the \u201chighest male standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth, 45, has occasionally been filmed joining troops for physical training, even challenging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a \u201cPete and Bobby Challenge\u201d to inspire Americans to pursue fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape, or in combat units with females who can\u2019t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men, or troops who are not fully proficient on their assigned weapons platformer tasks, or under a leader who was \u2018the first\u2019 but not \u2018the best,’\u201d the secretary said.<\/p>\n

If women \u2014 and \u201cweak men\u201d \u2014 don\u2019t meet those standards, \u201cso be it,\u201d Hegseth said in remarks at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment<\/p>\n

Combat forces will have to do \u201creal hard\u201d physical training every day and undergo two tests each year to ensure they are up to the \u201chighest male standard,\u201d Hegsetg said. 99th Readiness Division<\/p>\n

\u201cStandards must be uniform, gender-neutral, and high. If not, they\u2019re not standards. They\u2019re just suggestions. Suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth also charged that too many members of the military were promoted based on their identities, and not merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don\u2019t-hurt-anyone\u2019s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,\u201d he said, inviting any brass who disagreed with his approach to \u201cdo the honorable thing and resign.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusion, no more debris. I\u2019ve said before and will say again, we are done with that s\u2013t,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore leadership changes will be made,\u201d Hegseth promised. \u201cOf that, I\u2019m certain.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that front, the secretary said he has already been taking action \u2014 by firing a slew of top military brass who he said reached their positions based on DEI policies.<\/p>\n

Senior military leaders look on as Hegswth spoke at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Sept. 30. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you have seen and the media has obsessed over, I have fired a number of senior officers since taking over,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cThe previous chairman, other members of the Joint Chiefs [of Staff], combatant commanders and other commanders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale for me has been straightforward: It\u2019s nearly impossible to change a culture with the same people who helped create or even benefited from that culture, even if that culture was created by a previous president and previous secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those fired generals and admirals include former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff C.Q. Brown \u2014 a black Air Force general \u2014 and former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the Navy\u2019s top officer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hegseth said his approach to those firings \u2014 and to leading the nation\u2019s military as a whole \u2014 has been simple: \u201cWhen in doubt, assess the situation, follow your gut, and if it\u2019s the best for the military, make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose officers were following elected political leadership, an entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that, quote, \u2018our diversity is our strength,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, we know our unity is our strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

While attacking woke policies, Hegseth said he forgave those who did so because they were forced to follow orders by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

Hegseth charged that too many members of the military were promoted based on their identities, and not merit. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQI+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they\u2019re females [are] totally normal. They were told that we need a green fleet and electric tanks. They were told to kick out Americans who refused an emergency vaccine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey followed civilian policies set by foolish and reckless political leaders. Our job \u2014 my job \u2014 has been to determine which leaders simply did what they must to answer the prerogatives of civilian leadership, and which leaders are truly invested in the Woke Department and therefore incapable of embracing the War Department and executing new lawful orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

With DEI die-hards identified and fired, Hegseth said the military will move forward with his focus on \u201cwarrior ethos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past eight months, we\u2019ve gotten a good look under the hood of our officer corps. We\u2019ve done our best to thoroughly assess the human terrain,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to make trade-offs and some difficult decisions; it\u2019s more of an art than a science. We have been and will continue to be judicious, but also expeditious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 War Secretary Pete Hegseth harangued a near-unprecedented gathering of America\u2019s top generals and admirals Tuesday, announcing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":267361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1198,1802,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,6986,80,139346,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-267360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-military","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-pete-hegseth","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-the-pentagon","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115295134989024761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}