Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reason for flying in the military’s top brass from all over the world has finally been revealed.
It turns out Hegseth, who has rebranded himself as President Donald Trump’s “Secretary of War,” wanted to lecture America’s generals about personal grooming.
“We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans,” he said.
“No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression,” he added. “We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards, and adhere to standards.”
He then compared bearded soldiers to the broken windows theory of policing, which says that if the small stuff goes, the big things go too.
“This is on duty, in the field, and in the rear. If you want a beard, you can join special forces,” Hegseth said. “If not, then shave.”
His remarks seemed to completely disregard the fact that women make up almost 18 percent of active duty soldiers and were sitting in the audience.
During his speech, Hegseth also railed against “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon” and said that from now on, military leaders will need to meet height and weight standards and pass physical training, or PT, tests each year.
Last week, Hegseth ordered hundreds of senior generals and admirals stationed worldwide to gather in person in Virginia without providing any reason or explanation.
The highly unusual move required anyone in a command position with the rank of one-star general or rear admiral and above, as well as their senior enlisted leaders, to appear at Marine Corps University at Quantico.
Staff members typically tasked with responding to global conflicts were forced to make last-minute travel arrangements for leaders to leave their commands, which critics said was both expensive and a possible security risk.
Later, it emerged that Hegseth planned to give a “pep rally”-style talk about “warrior ethos.”
The revelation left some officials bristling at the idea that a former Fox News weekend anchor would be lecturing the country’s most decorated military leaders on battle readiness, sources told The Washington Post.
“It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told the gathered generals. “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT, so can every member of our joint force.”
The secretary obsessively posts photos and videos on social media of himself working out with enlisted soldiers.
Every military “warrior” will also need to do PT on every duty day, Hegseth said.
“And we’re not talking, like, hot yoga and stretching,” he said. “Real, hard PT, either as a unit or an individual.”
Hegseth’s limited military experience came as a member of the Minnesota Army National Guard, which led to deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After he returned, he was accused of mismanagement while running veterans’ nonprofits, according to a bombshell report in The New Yorker that came out last December during Hegseth’s Senate confirmation process.
Sources said Hegseth drank excessively on the job, an allegation that was later backed up by some of his former colleagues at Fox, where he anchored Fox and Friends Weekend from 2017 to 2024.
Hegseth denied having a drinking problem but vowed to quit drinking if confirmed.
His personal life has also stretched the Department of Defense’s resources. He has been married three times—he became involved with both his second and third wives while still married to previous partners—and has four biological children and three step-children.
The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has reportedly been forced to pull agents away from criminal probes in order to safeguard Hegseth’s residences in Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
