Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a blistering commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Saturday, using the rainy ceremony to denounce what he called a legacy of “foolish and feckless leaders” who imposed identity politics on the nation’s premier military institution.
“The battlefield does not grade on a curve, and you can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy,” Hegseth told the graduating cadets. “Combat is the ultimate test, and our best Americans must ace it.”
The Pentagon chief, a Princeton alumnus, accused previous administrations of trying to turn West Point into “woke Princeton” by embracing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He said they “hired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls, but no more.” Hegseth insisted that West Point must remain “above politics” and that “success here is based on merit. It’s how you perform that matters.”
Hegseth has been a vocal critic of DEI programs and championed President Trump’s executive order barring openly transgender individuals from military service. In his address, he told cadets, “You are fit, not fat. You are disciplined, not distracted.” He described their experience as enduring “the slow slide of the U.S. Army,” marked by lowered standards, an “obsession with race and gender,” weakened discipline, and the removal of statues and paintings in the name of political correctness. “I’m here to tell you the slow slide here at West Point and across the United States Army is over,” he declared.
Invoking the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Hegseth reminded graduates that “this too shall pass”—both good and bad times. He pledged to “untie” service members’ hands, asserting that “lawyers don’t run battalions, commanders do.” He assured the cadets, “No matter what, President Trump and I will have your back when tough decisions are made, especially decisions made in a split second in the heat of battle that air-conditioned offices in Washington, D.C., will never have. Understand, your hands are untied.”
In March, Hegseth announced a “ruthless, no-excuses” overhaul of the military’s legal offices and last year fired the top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force, labeling them “roadblocks to orders” from the president. Democratic lawmakers have expressed alarm over this weakening of legal safeguards, particularly after the military’s deadly strikes on vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. A coalition of Democratic lawmakers with military backgrounds—including Sens. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.)—called on service members to defy illegal orders following those strikes. President Trump condemned the warning as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by Death!” and federal prosecutors sought to indict the lawmakers for violating a law against interfering with military loyalty, morale, or discipline, but a grand jury declined to charge them in February.
On Saturday, Hegseth was joined on stage by Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, and other top military officials. President Trump delivered last year’s commencement address; previous speakers include former President Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Hegseth’s speech comes amid broader political tensions over military policy, including his recent campaign trip to Kentucky to support a Trump-backed challenger—a move that drew criticism from Rep. Thomas Massie. The Pentagon chief’s commitment to overhauling the military’s legal offices and his focus on “merit” over identity reflect the administration’s ongoing push to reshape the armed forces.
