Original subtitles

[applause]

[applause]

>> Well, thank you. Please take your seats.

Well, warriors,

good afternoon.

One year ago today, I stood right here

on this very stage and addressed

generals and admirals and sergeants

major.

Now,

the hyperventilating media thought it

might be an impromptu PT test. Maybe it

should have been.

Instead,

the speech was a declaration of

independence for the War Department,

marking a clean break from the Defense

Department of old.

The speech reestablished a singular

mission for this department,

warfighting.

Preparing to fight and preparing to win,

unrelenting, unapologetic,

and uncompromising in that single

pursuit.

Now,

I think the generals heard the message.

Those who responded positively, which is

most of them,

are leading newly focused and newly

empowered and disciplined formations.

Those generals who did not,

who clung to the woke department or

seemed to think civilian control of the

military is simply a suggestion,

well, they no longer work here.

You see that the number crunchers say we

fired 10%

of the generals and admirals across the

force, and that number sounds about

right.

And I know because I directed it that

we've also reduced the overall number of

general officer slots by an additional

10%.

So, yes,

20% reduction across the board.

Now, the media

calls that a purge.

I call it accountability

and long overdue.

And frankly,

the bare minimum. As usual, what the

media levels as an acquisition

accusation,

I wear as an accomplishment.

You see, you can't change a culture with

the same people who enabled it.

Personnel is policy at every single

level.

But today,

I'm talking to an even more important

group of Americans.

The top E6s,

staff sergeants,

first-class petty officers and technical

sergeants and the top O3s, captains and

navy lieutenants across the entire

military.

E6s

and O3s. Now, it could have been E5s or

E7s or O2s or O4s, but I've got a

sweet spot, a special thing for E6s and

O3s and I'll share why later.

The best of the best.

You see, last year's speech was not for

those generals.

It was for you,

the backbone of our force,

the current and future leaders on the

front lines.

Now, later in this speech, I'm going to

make six brand new announcements that

will transform the future of the force

you serve in.

Today's speech is entitled

State of the Force and it's intended to

be a new annual tradition where the

secretary gives an update and casts the

vision for the future of the department.

Now, for almost 2 years, you've heard me

talk over and over and over

about three core priorities,

reviving the warrior ethos,

rebuilding the military,

and reestablishing deterrence.

And I'm proud to stand on this stage and

report

that the warrior ethos has been revived.

Our military is being rebuilt.

And American deterrence is back.

Simply put,

thanks to the courageous and

common-sense leadership of our commander

in chief, President Donald J. Trump.

The state of our force today

is stronger than it's ever been in our

nation's history. I'm looking out at the

most capable,

the most focused, and the most lethal in

American history.

You see, I'd like to think last year's

Quantico speech was liberation day for

leaders.

For you to be the apolitical,

hard-charging, common sense, no-nonsense

constitutional leaders that you joined

the military to be.

You see, this stuff it's not rocket

science.

But it is a revival.

The power is back in the hands of

commanders and NCOs, not lawyers and HR

reps.

Telling someone to get in shape or shave

or fix their uniform or start busting

their ass, that's not discrimination.

That's leadership.

We've ended the poisonous culture of

risk aversion and empowered leaders at

every single level

to simply enforce standards.

The only focus, as you know,

in your formations should be training,

readiness, accountability, discipline,

and lethality. And when you pursue those

things,

you don't have to walk on eggshells.

No more social engineering, no more

weaponized IG policies. The complainers,

the ideologues, and the poor performers

are no longer in the driver's seat.

No more silly PowerPoint trainings or

drag queen shows.

No more diversity quotas, no more gender

pronouns, no more identity months.

Only the warrior ethos.

And I know you feel it

because I've I've been to your units and

met with your troops.

It has transformed entire formations as

it was intended to do.

But it's worth saying again

so that the fake news understands it.

We are no longer the woke department

or the weak department.

Simple transla- translation of that?

No fanny no fatties, no no

beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no

radicals.

Just warriors.

Just tough, ready, committed troops.

The war department, as you know, is

color blind,

gender neutral,

and merit-based.

Or as the president likes to says to me,

Pete, central casting.

I want central casting.

The ideological clowns are out.

The patriotic cowboys are in

with testosterone testing on top.

Diversity is not our strength.

Unity

is our strength.

Because what that's all that really

matters when the missiles are flying.

You see, the delusional media will

downplay all of the progress of the past

year, but this group,

right here,

and I look forward to hearing from you

all tomorrow morning, as well,

knows how real and how important

cultural change is and has been.

But allow me to digress briefly

to address that

delusional media.

You're all here, and I'm I'm here to

talk to you, but for a moment I'm going

to talk

to them and through them.

To the fake news.

To start, there's a few headlines

that they could run that they just

haven't gotten to.

Guess what?

In today's war department, military

sexual assaults are down.

In today's war department, military

suicides

are down.

In today's war department, black and

female recruitment are up,

even though all the quotas are gone. Hm.

Shocking.

How could that be?

Quite an inconvenient truth that doesn't

quite fit their narrative, does it?

Not only is our force more ready and

more lethal,

but it's healthier than ever.

Color blind,

gender neutral, merit-based. Everyone of

all shades

loves that.

Instead,

you read disingenuous headlines about

deployment lengths,

patently false claims of low troop

morale,

or flat-out propaganda,

as if it's written by our adversaries.

And frankly,

sometimes it is.

Take Iran, for example.

Allow me to lay it out simply

for the anti-American losers

in our media.

These Americans,

right here, and their peers, these,

have destroyed Iran's navy, destroyed

Iran's air force, destroyed their air

defense systems, their leadership, and

their military industrial capacity,

their entire defense base.

Iran's conventional shield has been

crippled, and their nuclear ambitions

laid bare for the world.

You, this group, are ensuring that Iran

never gets a nuclear weapon.

Courageous and historic operations that

every red-blooded American

is proud of.

But as you know,

the information space,

it's a battle space.

Yet our so-called press makes Iranian

state media look

reasonable.

Our media's shameful lust for political

retribution blinds them to the

consequences of reckless so-called

reporting.

So-called journalists, juiced up on

Trump Derangement Syndrome,

think they're fighting against our

president, but they're really

undermining

you,

our warfighters.

Bottom line,

too many of them hate the president more

than they love the country.

You see,

it's your movements

and bases

that they reveal to the enemy.

It's your operations that they

jeopardize when they leak classified

capabilities.

And ultimately, it's your lives they put

directly at risk

when they lie about munitions

stockpiles.

All for a banner

that will scroll on TV

for 30 seconds.

And I know a little about little bit

about banner scrolling on TV for 30

seconds.

A free press is of course important.

But partisan activism that intentionally

smears the troops and the historic

mission that they're undertaking is

fundamentally anti-American.

It's sick.

It's a national betrayal.

It's treason.

Actually.

I mean, I hate to have to say it, but it

has to be said.

Especially in defense of the great

Americans right in front of me.

But you

nevertheless

continue forward.

Because you love the country

more than they can fathom.

The haters

as I just illustrated, don't understand

the stakes of your profession.

But you do.

Which is why 1 year ago we launched

three leadership litmus tests, some of

which I talked about this morning,

that we live by every day in this

department.

The War Department golden rule,

the 1990 test,

and the E603 test.

First and most importantly,

the golden rule.

My sons,

all of my kids,

are no more important than yours.

All precious souls made in the image and

likeness of God.

Every parent in this country deserves to

know that their child that joins our

ranks is entering exactly the kind of

unit

that the Secretary of War would want his

son to join.

Jesus said, and you know it, do unto

others as you would have done unto

yourself. It is the simplest test of

truth.

Well, the new War Department golden rule

that we put into practice is this.

Do your unit as you would have done unto

your own child's unit.

Would you want them serving in a unit

where standards were lowered to meet

quotas?

Or a unit where leaders were promoted

for reason reasons other than merit,

performance,

or war-fighting?

The answer is not just no, the answer is

hell no.

We live this golden rule now and

standards have responded accordingly.

And that means for every combat MOS,

none of this should be new to you

because we've been doing this over the

past year.

We now have gender neutral standards set

at the highest male standard only. Cuz

combat doesn't care.

That means for every combat MOS, we now

have a combat field test. Again,

set at the highest male standard only

because combat doesn't care.

That means two PT tests every year for

every unit and the same for height and

weight standards.

And soon,

in every service for those PT tests, and

I'm looking at the Army guys here, guys

and gals,

it's a PT test that can be done with

only a stopwatch

and a clipboard.

Stay tuned.

No more mobile gym needed.

That means PT every duty day

at every level from corporal

to commandant.

That means not treating combat arms and

non-combat arms as the same thing. Both

very important, but not the same.

And that means basic training is back to

basic training. Drill sergeants being

drill sergeants.

The same goes for how we pick senior

leaders.

We got rid of the DEI-based social

emotional evaluations known in the Army

as B-CAP and C-CAP. You won't have to

endure them.

They were Milley and Austin specials.

Intended to create politically correct

quotas for race and gender

under the guise of double-blind

psychology assessments.

The previous administration forced out

so-called toxic leaders

in favor of promoting risk-averse

get-along-to-go-along conformists.

It was the true politicization of our

military.

Stupid

and dangerous.

Instead

now we have instituted a

performance-based

joint warfighter evaluation.

Every colonel who wants to be a general

will have to pass and excel in a

merit-based performance-driven

assessment of commander's ability to

solve complex military problems and win

on the battlefield.

All of you deserve senior leaders who

know how to warfight.

Who will employ you like the War

Department, not like the State

Department.

Who will think outside the box.

Bold and violent.

The previous administration wanted

politically correct generals.

We only want the top performing

generals.

And it's not just pass or fail, it's

racked and stacked one to end.

The best move on

the worst do not.

Common sense.

We also apply every day the 1990 test

and the E6 O3 test.

Standards that existed

in say 1990

now once again apply today. We have

restored dozens.

Turns out we were right.

Standards over time had dropped for all

the wrong reasons.

And everything we do

is in service of making your jobs, the

jobs of E6s and O3s easier. The E6 O3

test.

Because you're the ones

that make everything happen.

Now it turns out

this turnaround

because that's what it is, it's a

turnaround

is wildly popular both inside our ranks

and with young Americans looking from

the outside.

Retention rates and you all know this,

meaning troops who are staying in are at

record rates.

Including over 80% of the force on the

USS Abraham Lincoln

on their historic mission.

And it's all merit-based.

Our best O-3s and our best E-6s are

choosing to stay in, which says

everything and sets the tone for the

entire force.

And recruiting for every branch has been

record-setting

ever since President Trump won in

November of 2024.

Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force,

Space Force, National Guard, Reserves,

pilots, special forces, all setting

decades-long recruiting records.

You see, Americans want to serve when

they are led by strong patriots,

not by weak weirdos.

Makes sense.

And all of this matters because you know

why it matters.

Cuz it translates to the battlefield.

Our enemies know we will act decisively.

Our allies know that it's time for them

to step up.

Drug cartels,

the terrorist organizations of our

hemisphere,

who previously run our hemisphere, are

now on the run

in our hemisphere, courtesy of our new

counter-cartel coalition.

The ACCC.

You heard on the

film right behind me, Maduro said,

"I'm right here.

Come and get me."

So, we did.

FAFO

in action.

And from Midnight Hammer to Epic Fury,

Iran will never, ever have a nuclear

weapon.

Peace through strength,

deterrence in action on behalf of the

American people. We will fight to win.

Clear missions, full hearts, hands

untied.

It's all I ever wanted as a platoon

leader, and it's all my E-6 squad

leaders ever wanted. Back again

to the E-6 O-3 test. We let our leaders

fight their formations,

and then we have their backs.

It's simple, yet you know in your

business that's incredibly powerful and

liberating.

In fact,

the greatest compliment that I have

received in this job by far

has come from battlefield commanders.

From Rough Rider to Maduro to Epic Fury,

commanders have told me point-blank

over and over and said the same to the

chairman,

"We've never in our 10, 20, even 30

years in service felt this supported

with authorities, capabilities, and

backing like never before."

Unleashed,

our boys come home.

The enemy does not.

Whatever it takes.

Ask dude 44 alpha

and dude 44 bravo.

Not only are we a new department,

however, on the battlefield,

but also on the halls of the Pentagon,

that big old building you looked at this

morning.

We are rebuilding the military, but not

at the speed of government, not at the

speed of this town

or that town, wherever it is,

but at the speed of business.

We've thrown out the failed bureaucratic

playbook and replaced it with an

unrelenting focus on speed, scale, and

rapid innovation.

We are in a war of attrition

against the Pentagon bureaucracy every

single day, and it is a war that we

intend to win.

We've traversed the country in an

arsenal of freedom tour igniting our

defense industrial base that was long

ignored and President Trump has revived

with American manufacturing.

We are open for business as a

department, but not just for the big

prime contractors,

but for the new, nimble, innovative

companies that have had to fight their

way into the department in the past.

And the historic $1.5 trillion budget

that the president demands, which we

will deliver,

will ensure that we are equipped to win

and fight every future fight. That's

what we owe you.

But the new money that we get,

we spend it differently.

Our great Deputy Secretary,

Steve Feinberg, he's here somewhere.

A patriotic billionaire.

>> [applause]

>> There he is.

He is a patriotic billionaire turnaround

specialist.

He's our secret weapon.

He's cutting new deals that will

revolutionize our department forever.

Defense companies now have to spend

their own money, imagine that,

to expand their plants, their factories,

and their manufacturing lines in

exchange for predictable multi-year

deals that allow them to invest and plan

and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

We're now getting weapons faster than

ever before.

And for this reason and many more, it's

imperative

that Congress pass a $350 billion

reconciliation package for our warriors.

President Trump has promised a

generational investment in the war

department, and we're going to deliver.

We must fund the future fight. That I

know

is imperative.

We have the most powerful and the most

prepared military on the planet. Nobody

can touch us.

It's not even close.

My job, your job, our job is to keep it

that way.

Which brings us to today's six

announcements, which taken together

with historic historic efforts already

underway like the Golden Dome for

America or the Golden Fleet to protect

the seas and the F-47,

will ensure our military stays on top

for generations to come.

So, let's go.

First,

today at my direction,

we are announcing the creation of

autonomous warfare command,

or Auto War Com.

A new four-star combatant command with

service-like authorities built to scale

autonomous and robotic capabilities

across the joint force

in the fastest peacetime shift in modern

military history.

Drone warfare supercharged by SI-enabled

targeting is the biggest battlefield

revolution in generations. You already

know that.

Yet, when I was sworn in

the Department of Defense

there was scant urgency in this domain.

That changed as soon as we took the

helm.

We immediately launched the drone

dominance program to cut through red

tape and move authorities out of the

pen-Pentagon and place it with commands.

We established Task Force 401

led by Army Brigadier General Matt Ross,

a phenomenal leader.

Now the leading counter-drone unit

across the entire government.

To accelerate purchasing and fielding of

these technologies, we fused the Defense

Innovation Unit, DIU, with a direct

report program manager called Durpam.

That team has shipped thousands of

autonomous systems of drones to the

Middle East and around the world

delivering lethal capabilities and

outcomes in days and weeks rather than

months or years. That's the normal speed

of the Pentagon, months or years.

It's a good start but certainly not

enough.

The pace of war is changing faster than

the process to support it. Cheap compute

super intelligence and advanced

commercial manufacturing have enabled

the proliferation of low-cost,

high-precision strike.

You see, for 40 years the United States

relied on an expensive weapons on only

not only but pri- primarily on expensive

weapons that placed quality over

quantity. Now that approach gave us a

lot of enormous advantages and we need

to preserve those capabilities. But

today we need both quality and quantity.

The term you know is high-low mix.

An analogy

is a thunderstorm.

We need bolts of lightning, high, our

existing high-end kill chains capable of

striking unexpectedly and decisively.

We also need steady wind and rain.

Mass drones and other autonomous

attritable systems that flip the cost

exchange and impose unrelenting pressure

on an adversary on the battlefield.

Ukraine's lesson is not that one type of

drone wins wars, but rather the need for

a purpose-built system that maximizes

the ability to adapt.

We will fuse procurement

with operations at scale.

And then allow warfighters and engineers

and entrepreneurs to learn, adapt, and

rapidly iterate on their domain and

their mission.

And that's why I'm directing an interim

step as well.

Today the

unmanned systems Durpham becomes Project

Agincourt.

Project Agincourt. Now, the name means

something.

In 1415,

many moons ago, the outnumbered English

army

defeated a numerically superior French

force in their legacy armor

with a new technology,

the longbow.

The English had to look outside their

traditional recruitment pools to find

skilled archers.

Now, to maximize the rate of fire that

you need to be effective, they

integrated fletchers,

the craftsmen who made and repaired the

arrows for the longbows, and they moved

them close to the front lines to sustain

the rate of fire.

We face a very similar moment.

Project Agincourt is not just a

procurement vehicle. It's applying our

commercial first drone dominance

playbook to DIU.

And now it gets two brief additional

missions.

First, it will prototype a new construct

called warfighting acquisition.

Not just acquisition that happens at the

Pentagon.

This model fuses operators with

entrepreneurs in rapid adaptation cycles

while distributing decisions and dollars

closer to frontline units to combatant

commands.

Realistic training exercises

and when possible, the crucible of

combat

will be used to compress innovation

timelines and scale what works.

Now, this audience of any across the

country understands why this formula

unlocks advantage for the United States.

You know the single greatest comparative

advantage of the US military

is not a program, it's not a platform,

and it's certainly not a program office.

It is our frontline combat leaders.

By removing unnecessary layers, reducing

the distance between our warfighters and

our world-leading innovators, and then

giving the right people the authority to

act

Project Agincourt will pilot innovation

at the edge in a way that only Americans

can do.

And second

the culminating mission of Agincourt

will take place over the course of

months, clearing the path for autonomous

warfare command.

The autonomous and robotic revolution

has enormous implications for equipment

doctrine, organization, and the

assumptions that have governed warfare

for decades.

Civilian leaders can provide direction

and urgency, but lasting change must be

anchored in military command structures

and operationalized by leaders across

our joint force.

Now any major institutional change like

this one, it is a major institutional

change, has always met resistance.

Goldwater-Nichols faced opposition from

the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman

of the Joint Chiefs, and the military

services.

US Special Operations Command, SOCOM

triggered a Pentagon revolt.

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates had to

fight his own building

to fast-track MRAPs

to the front lines.

And President Trump's Space Force was

opposed by the then Secretary the Air

Force and the Chairman.

Yet when the final order was given,

the military executed

and the force was better off as a

result.

Today, I am giving a similar order

with the full support of President

Trump.

A man that understands leading from the

front

and on the edge.

We will soon have a four-star commander

to raise the Auto Warcom flag.

And to prepare the way, I'm appointing

two leaders to guide Project Agincourt

during the next year.

Owen West

and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strazer.

Theirs is going to be a CEO COO

partnership.

Owen focused on strategic risk,

resources, and scale

and Max focused on operational

problem-solving and the realities of

employment in combat.

Now, this is no theory. It's no one-off,

which is why also today we're phasing in

new MOS frameworks within each military

department

to support our shift to autonomy.

We need institutional knowledge and

career paths

for a new generation of autonomous

warfighters.

So, today with autonomous war command,

Auto Warcom,

we institutionalize and we supercharge

the era of AI, robotics, and autonomous

systems all in order to win.

Now, next

and second,

even as we build the systems on the

edge, we need to be thinking even

further ahead, years and decades even

into the future

to ensure America's military supremacy.

So, as we scan that horizon of an

unknown future,

we should have the humility

to recognize that the best forecasters

of future conflict do not solely reside

inside the Pentagon.

There are obvious biases and risks to

asking ourselves

to both ask the questions and answer

them.

So, today we are leveraging a unique

source of American advantage, one our

adversaries do not have.

Our innovators, our senior leaders, and

our technologists.

Big thinkers and doers who will forecast

the creative solution for tomorrow's

conflicts.

And that's why today, at my direction,

I'm announcing project Meridian.

An effort led by America's best minds to

study the future of warfare.

Under the leadership of the Department's

Chief Technology Officer, Amir Michael,

project Meridian will be co-led

by three of our nation's best minds.

Elon Musk,

Palmer Lucky,

and Newt Gingrich,

all of of whom are up in the audience

with us today. Please stand if you

would.

>> [applause]

>> Thank you.

>> [applause]

[applause]

>> Those three great Americans

are going to be joined by a team of

senior leaders, handpicked private

sector leaders, and subject matter

experts from across our nation's

unmatched innovation, academic, and

policy ecosystems.

Project Meridian, the future of warfare,

is not about developing new strategies

or new policies. We already do that.

Rather, its purpose is to creatively

look to the future

and identify the domains that we must

conquer

and capabilities we must master.

We should have been thinking about

autonomous warfare command 10 years ago.

We need to be looking forward into the

future to achieve technological and

military dominance on the battlefield

for decades to come.

It is futuristic

on purpose.

Their work will be focused on

discovering, developing, and fielding

the weapons and systems that our

children and our grandchildren will need

in their lifetimes

without any creative limitations

or restrictions.

On any future battlefield from under the

earth to beyond the moon,

our American warriors will be armed with

absolute technological superiority

because we will have the foresight to

prepare today for tomorrow.

And we're going to do so rapidly.

That's why I'm directing Project

Meridian's findings to be completed

and submitted within 120 days

culminating in a full public rollout, of

course a classified annex

to ensure this is not just another

endless Pentagon study that is outdated

before it is finished. In fact, our

first meeting with those three great

Americans and a small group of us is

happening in a skiff about 200 yards

away right after this speech. We are

going to hit the ground running.

And in that time, Project Meridian will

ruthlessly map

the trajectory of wars, domains, and

technologies to ensure

this war department, your war

department, dominates the future.

Now, the future is where we will fight,

but

there we need to maintain what we have

as well in the process and make it

impenetrable.

For decades, we built the most powerful

military in the world and then we

quietly

we made it and regrettably made it

dependent.

Dependent on foreign mines for rare

earths,

on overseas factories for microchips, on

foreign supply chains for weapons,

and on a civilian power grid to keep the

lights on at our bases.

Well, that ends today with my third

announcement.

Today at my direction, we are launching

Fortress America,

a national insurance policy for the

American homeland.

Now, Fortress stands for Federal

Operations for Resilience, Troop

Resources, Energy Supply,

and Survivability.

And here's what Fortress calls for.

Every major military installation in

America is going to generate its own

power

independent of the civilian grid.

If an adversary takes down the grid by

cyber attack, by sabotage, or by any

means, our bases stay lit. Our aircraft

keep flying. Our command centers never

go dark.

We're bringing our critical supply

chains home.

The rare earths, the specialty metals,

the semiconductors, the propellants,

mined in America, refined in America,

built in America by American workers.

We are building long overdue strategic

reserves

deep enough to fight through disruption.

Think munitions, fuel, medicine, blood.

Deep enough that if the world supply

lines break, and in a real war

they're going to break

America keeps fighting anyway.

We're hardening every installation on

American soil against cyber intrusion,

sabotage, and drones.

And we're securing the high ground and

the airwaves.

Our satellites, our spectrum, our

ability to see, to navigate, and to talk

to one another.

Previous administrations may have traded

away our resilience one job, one

factory, one town, one base at a time.

Fortress America is how we get that

back.

No matter the circumstance, this

department will have the power, the

equipment, and the supplies you need to

take the fight to the enemy. The

Department of War, and the chairman

alluded to this, the Department of War

will be the insurance policy for the

entire nation.

Now, insurance

is not pessimism.

It's what serious people do when the

stakes are too high to simply gamble.

We're not looking for war, but we will

be prepared if one comes.

We'll make certain that America cannot

be starved out, shut down, or cut off.

A fortress is not a place where you hide

from.

It's a ground you stand on, the

foundation you fight from.

The strength that lets you reach

anywhere in the world precisely because

you are fully prepared at home.

We're going to build fortress America

and that starts again today.

Now, speaking of bases,

for too long, and you know this, our

military has been bogged down by the

same old tired Washington playbook.

Spend trillions on exquisite weapon

systems

while our troops live in aging bases,

outdated barracks. Now, we're getting

after with the barracks task force, but

it's not enough. Outdated barracks

and inadequate infrastructure.

That era needs to end.

Under this commander-in-chief's

leadership, we are bringing tens of

thousands of our finest warriors home

from overseas.

We are growing our joint force by tens

of thousands of service members,

and we're pivoting our focus to where it

belongs,

to defending our homeland and our

hemisphere

while

outmatching any global threat.

Now, to back up our war fighters, when

we bring those troops home, we won't

just reshuffle troops into legacy posts.

We're going to build them beautiful new

bases

from the ground up.

And that is why today, at my direction,

the fourth announcement is the next

great American base.

We haven't built a new base in this

country in 40 years.

That ends now.

President Trump is a builder,

and this project is about doing

something bold, beautiful, and

world-class for the great Americans who

wear our nation's uniform.

We're calling on every governor in the

country and adjutant general, every TAG,

across this great republic, to step up

to the plate

and bring us their best sales pitch.

If your state wants the honor of hosting

15 to 25,000 of America's great troops,

show us why and how you're going to do

it.

Cutting through the red tape, offering

up the land, and rolling out the red

carpet for our military families.

Now, this is not going to be a soulless

government installation.

We will plan out and chart out a

dynamic, self-sustaining power

projection platform.

We're talking hundreds of thousands of

acres with organic power generation,

modern air defenses,

and cutting-edge technology. Think

a fortress.

Just as importantly, we are restoring

pride and standards to how our troops

live.

In line with the president's executive

order on beautiful civic architecture,

this base will be a proud fortress of

our republic built with timeless,

classical architecture.

Our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen,

Marines, and Guardians will have clean,

first-class barracks, world-class

training facilities, and thriving

communities with top-tier housing,

school, child care, and health care for

families. We owe our warriors nothing

less

than the gold standard.

Now, this entire selection process will

be transparent,

with the deliberation process recorded

for the American people to see.

Governors and their tags and their

leadership teams will come to the

Pentagon

to pitch their plans to myself, to the

Deputy Secretary, to the Chairman of

Joint Joint Chiefs of Staff,

maybe even the President himself.

No backroom Washington deals,

no political favoritism, just a

straight-up merit-based contest to see

which state will partner with us

to build the most modern, beautiful, and

lethal military installation on the

planet. And to those states, I say, may

the best pitch

win.

Our fifth announcement,

like the sixth that will follow,

is about people.

In an era defined by rapid change and

shifting global threats,

the demand for grounded, strong, and

honorable leaders

has never been more urgent.

Tomorrow's leaders can't simply manage

crisis. They have to thrive within it

while maintaining their true north

compass heading.

Only leaders of character

who cherish our Constitution and love

our country should lead our great

military.

Now, thankfully,

our military academies at West Point,

Annapolis, and Colorado Springs,

especially with the new leadership, the

new admissions criteria, and new new

curriculum, they're heading back in the

right direction.

Back to the basics.

From the classroom to field training.

These three institutions are critically

important because as you know, they

commission the most officers in our

force.

The next largest source of future

officers is our six existing senior

military colleges and their corps of

cadets. I'm sure many of you attended

one of them.

Thankfully, the corps of these

institutions, for the most part, have

not wavered. I had a chance to see a

great one at Texas A&M a couple of weeks

ago. And in fact, places like that have

doubled down on American values.

The patriotic and selfless service being

taught at places like Texas A&M,

VMI, The Citadel, Norwich, Virginia

Tech,

and the University of North Georgia are

exactly what our nation needs.

But after that,

we rely on a wide variety of

commissioning sources.

Many from institutions that have

drifted. In some cases, have careened

away from founding values.

Now,

I don't need to give a sermon about the

failings of higher education.

You get it.

I once wrote a book about it.

From the Ivy Leagues to the most liberal

to most liberal arts colleges, our

colleges and universities

have become anti-American,

DEI-worshipping, woke factories.

Qualities like grit and courage replaced

with political correctness

and social justice.

God and country

traded for Che Guevara and critical

theory.

What do we need?

We need students of Western civilization

and the pillars of our republic.

Leaders who understand the faith of

Jerusalem,

the philosophy of anthems Athens, the

power of Rome,

and the freedom of Philadelphia

circa 1776.

Officers of the republic proud of our

country, proud of our heritage, and

proud of our history and those who serve

it.

We need more officers from academic

institutions like our military academies

and senior military colleges. And today

we're going to make that happen.

Enter a new core of cadets.

To meet this critical need, we're

partnering with a new crop of premier

higher ed institutions,

including

Louisiana State University, LSU,

Liberty University,

Tuskegee University,

Mississippi State University,

and Hillsdale College.

These schools have stepped forward to

answer the call to duty

and establish new corps of cadets in

partnership with the Department of War.

So today at my direction, we are

formally establishing a program to

assist these universities and colleges.

It's called America's Corps of Cadets.

This flagship effort is central

to our goal of increasing the number of

patriotic leaders of character

who are commissioned into our joint

force.

Each member school is designated a

distinguished military college, reviving

a category previously used in our

department.

And in this status, these institutions

will maintain exceptionally high

standards of cadet discipline,

tactical instruction, and military

organization.

Additionally, these schools earn a

prestigious honor school status,

which grants priority in officer

commissioning, which you all know is a

big deal.

We're grateful to these initial five

institutions for stepping forward, and

there are a number more that we plan to

announce soon.

The status quo of our officer pipelines

pretty good.

But the future

will be even better.

By embedding continuous military

discipline and leadership development

into new institutions, by growing our

corps of cadets,

the war department will ensure our

republic is defended by even more

officers of unwavering character and

patriotism.

Finally,

cutting-edge technology, which we've

talked about,

new basing and bases, which we've talked

about,

and a better educational pipeline are

still incomplete

without the most essential component

of our republic,

faith.

Faith

in something greater

than us.

When an American warrior raises their

right hand to defend our nation,

you sign away a lot more than just time.

You miss births.

You miss first steps.

You miss final goodbyes.

You miss other civilian careers.

But one of the costs that is rarely

thought about or talked about is the

loss of your religious community.

Every time we issue orders to move a

warrior to a new location, they leave

behind the faith community, the church

that grounds them.

For people of faith, that community

isn't just a a nice-to-have.

In many ways, it's an extension of their

family. It's their moral foundation or

their personal and spiritual

accountability.

The very bedrock of their warrior ethos.

When you actually look at the numbers,

and this will be good for the press,

less than 5% of our force identifies as

non-religious.

Less than 5%. Meaning 95% of our force

recognizes an almighty God.

Accordingly, our department therefore

has a sacred duty.

First-class religious support wherever

we send our warriors.

Now, for far too long,

you know, we didn't prioritize that duty

at all. It was an afterthought.

Political correctness and secular

humanism got a vote. Chaplains did not.

Budgets were cut. Resourcing and

manpower needs were ignored. Base

chapels fell apart.

Decisions about faith and religion were

made by secular careerists in cubicles

and lawyers

running around with red tape.

Now, we don't put non-lawyers in charge

of the JAG Corps

or non-doctors in charge of military

surgeons.

Yet, for decades, we let people with no

expertise in face faith or religion

dictate the spiritual life of our

warriors.

The people who actually practice faith

and religion, our chaplains, were buried

echelons deep

waiting for permission.

We ask chaplains to serve and sacrifice

and then sideline them with paperwork

and process.

And that ends now.

Today, at my direction, I'm establishing

the Office of Religious Affairs.

Starting today and for Secretaries of

War after me, the Office of Religious

Affairs will report straight to the top.

No staff filters, no bureaucratic

dilution, a direct line to the

Secretary.

This is not going to be a paper-pushing

shop.

It's going to have real teeth.

It'll protect budgets demanded for

structure and strengthen religious

support. The experts,

our chaplains,

will finally have an advocate at the

highest levels.

Policy and resources will serve the

mission,

not smother the mission.

As so Psalm 33:12 extols us,

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the

Lord."

250 years ago, we rejected an earthly

king an ocean away

and appealing instead

to a heavenly king above.

George Washington made sure that the

Continental Army

had chaplains back at the beginning,

back in 1775.

That force appealed to heaven,

and we still do today.

Our national motto is, after all,

in God we trust.

Today, we reaffirm that trust.

We're placing spiritual health at the

same level as physical health.

Our department is, you might say,

putting on the full armor of God.

Because while we wage physical war,

we all know the real battle

is spiritual.

God is good.

Evil is not.

And America's military must understand

the difference.

To our incredible chaplains and

religious support teams, live your

calling, stand firm, preach truth,

minister to the flock,

fear no man.

Or as the psalmist put it,

the Lord is on my side.

I will not fear.

What can man do unto me?

Amen to that.

So, six announcements,

all charting the course for our

department. Autonomous warfare,

the future of warfare, the nation's

insurance policy, the next great

American base, a new core of cadets, and

the Office of Religious Affairs.

All for you.

Each of you swore an oath to the

Constitution, ending with so help me

God.

And when I raised my right hand in this

job, and made the same solemn pledge,

we sealed a shared covenant,

up to and including the price of the

lives of our best Americans, our

absolute best.

Each of us committed to the nation

with the sentiment of the sixth chapter

of the Book of Isaiah. Lord, here I am.

Send me.

Send me to fight the redcoats.

Send me to fight the communists.

Send me to fight the Islamists, send me.

You see the Ivy League faculty faculty

lounges, they'll never understand you.

And that's okay cuz they could never

ever do what you do.

The media will mischaracterize you.

And that's okay.

Because deep down they know you're the

reason they live free. They envy you.

Because you do real things every single

day.

You are the real 1%.

In the middle of the profession of arms.

You feel comfortable inside the violence

so that our citizens can live

peacefully.

Lethality is your calling card and

victory your only acceptable end state.

The outside world can't understand this

so stay true to this department.

You don't want to look like civilians

because you're different. You're set

apart. You are warriors.

With that title

comes great expectations.

So go forth

this day

and do good things.

Do hard things.

President Trump

has your back.

And so do I.

We are the war department.

And we will never back down.

Godspeed. Thank you very much.

>> Hoorah!

>> [applause]

[applause]

[applause]