Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was sworn into his new role leading America’s 3.5 million service members and civilians by Vice President JD Vance on Saturday morning, following Hegseth’s Friday evening Senate confirmation.
“When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense,” Hegseth said during his Jan. 14 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on lethality, meritocracy, warfighting, accountability and readiness.”
Hegseth listed restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence as the ingredients needed to bring back warfighting.
Calling himself a change agent, Hegseth outlined a vision of a culture of accountability, high standards, performance, readiness, rapid innovation and merit across the Defense Department.
“We share the same goals,” he told the committee. “A ready, lethal military; the health and well-being of our troops; and a strong and secure America.”
He also said he would trim the bureaucracy and reallocate resources to the warfighter.
“We won World War II with seven four-star generals,” he said. “Today we have 44. … There is an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield. We do not need more bureaucracy at the top. We need more warfighters empowered at the bottom. So, it is going to be my job … to identify those places where fat can be cut, so it can go toward lethality.”
A former Army National Guard officer, Hegseth, 44, served as an infantryman leading troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and guarding detainees at Guantanamo Bay. His military awards include two Bronze Star Medals, the Joint Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Expert Infantryman Badge.
Hegseth said his role as the 29th secretary of defense is “the most important deployment of my life.”
Hailing from Minnesota, Hegseth graduated from Princeton University in 2003 and earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in 2013. He has led organizations advocating for veterans, served as a Fox News host and published several books.
Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, have seven children.
