Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) says military re-enlistment is surging following President-elect Donald J. Trump’s announcement that Pete Hegseth will serve as his Secretary of Defense. Appearing on ABC News’s This Week, hosted by Jonathan Karl, on Sunday, Hagerty claimed he’d heard from numerous service members who were looking to leave the military or retire and who have now instead decided to re-enlist.
“Pete is a very talented individual. I talked with him earlier this week. He told me about how many people had written to him and said, look, I was thinking about getting out,” Hagerty said on Sunday. He added: “You know we have a huge recruitment problem, a huge retention problem in the military. I was thinking about getting out, but now that you’ve come to lead us, Pete, I’m going to stay in.”
Hagerty continued: “That’s the type of inspirational leader we need to see.”
Addressing the dubious sexual assault allegations against Hegseth, Hagerty stressed: “Don’t let these allegations distract us. What we need is real, significant change. The Pentagon has been more focused on pronouns than they have lethality the past four years. We need to get back to business, and I think Pete is just the person to do it.”
Senator @BillHagertyTN says he spoke to incoming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Pete told him patriots in our military are re-enlisting after news broke of his nomination.
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— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 24, 2024
The U.S. military has struggled with recruitment under the Biden-Harris government. Although a definitive cause for the drop in enlistments hasn’t been identified, evidence suggests a combination of the increasing threat of a major global conflict and radical diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies enacted by the Armed Forces is the likely driver.