President Donald Trump isn’t the only one in his administration wasting no time establishing the America First agenda he ran on in 2024.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced a litany of hurdles on his way to confirmation, but ultimately he was sworn in and quickly established the ethos the Pentagon will operate under while he is in charge.
Watch his swearing-in:
BREAKING: Pete Hegseth has officially been sworn in as the Secretary of Defense of the United States pic.twitter.com/Fhu8Re1bzn
— America (@america) January 25, 2025
Hegseth took the podium to issue a small speech, outlining his plan to whip America’s military arm back into shape.
Pete Hegseth: “We don’t want to fight wars. But if we do, we will bring overwhelming force and destroy our enemy.”
“We will put America first. We will bring peace through strength.”
“The three principles I talked about are what we will bring to that Pentagon. Restore the… pic.twitter.com/gxqwEN6QWL
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 25, 2025
“We will put America first. We will bring peace through strength,” he said. “The three principles I talked about are what we will bring to that Pentagon. Restore the warrior ethos in everything that we do. Rebuild our military and reestablish deterrents. We don’t want to fight wars, we want to deter them, and we want to end them responsibly. But if we need to fight them, we’re gonna bring overwhelming and decisive force to close with and destroy the enemy and bring our boys home.”
Hegseth referred to the privilege of serving as America’s defense secretary as the “honor of a lifetime” and took a few moments to honor the man who served as his company commander on his “first deployment in Guantanamo Bay.”
He also thanked Trump and vowed to “get to work right away” for the American people.
X users had plenty to say:
It’s great to have someone who actually will be competent.
Austin, the previous DOD Sec, had failure after failure, and people still thought he was more qualified than Pete because Pete drank once on the job on St.Patrick’s Day.
Wild.
— Isaac (@IcedViews) January 25, 2025
Pete Hegseth has been on the job less than 24 hours, and his words have already given me more hope than anything his bulbous predecessor said or did. pic.twitter.com/FYfTGmMUnf
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) January 25, 2025
Feels good to have a real MAN in charge of our military.
— Karen Weber (@WeberGirl765) January 25, 2025
America is so blessed to get Pete Hegseth confirmed. The devil did everything he could to stop that nomination and we are about to find out why.
GIVE ‘EM HELL PETE!
— Stella X (@stellaaaaaax) January 25, 2025
An actual warrior in the leadership position.
Peace through strength is the only wise thing to do.
I’m very excited about Pete. ⚔️
— Arthur MacWaters (@ArthurMacwaters) January 25, 2025
We need to bring back normal Rules of Engagement too. In 2025, with the technology and weaponry we have, there is no need for any war to drag on for years.
The idea that it was considered “normal” to some that Milley would call China and warn them ahead of ANY operation is…
— Kevin M. Nelson (@KevinMNelsonUSA) January 25, 2025
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