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July 16, 2025 - The Charlie Kirk Show
23:16
The American Military, Made Great Again ft. Secretary Pete Hegseth
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Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here live from the Bitcoin.com studio.
My interview with the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hagseth.
You're going to love this conversation.
We go back and forth about recruitment, about wokeism, and the inside story.
What happened with this strike in Iran?
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Here we go.
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
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So I, this is a, you could call it a live podcast taping, and all for our members here.
And then, Pete, you'll go up on stage and you'll enjoy the 7,000 people we have for you.
First of all, Pete, you're doing a phenomenal job.
I just want to say that from the American people that you don't get the credit that you deserve, obviously, in the mainstream media.
I mean, you've been in this job for now a couple months.
Like, just catch us up to speed.
I mean, this is, you're running the world's largest and greatest military.
Tell us, how's life?
Well, thank you, Charlie, and thanks for everything you do.
It is, I mean, it's the honor of a lifetime, and glory to God for the opportunity to do it, to serve our warfighters, to serve a department that was ill-served under the previous administration and under Obama to Biden and was left looking for leadership.
And they found it in a commander-in-chief in President Trump who sets the tone.
I mean, really, anything is possible when you have a fearless leader at the top.
Amen.
And so when he, the shield that he provides gives me an opportunity to say, what is the art of the possible about how we restore the warrior ethos and rebuild the military and reestablish deterrence and put America first with common sense and peace through strength?
You can do those things when you've got a boss that has your back.
And that's why my message to the troops is always, guys, gals, he has your back, and so do I. So go do the tough things on behalf of the nation.
And we're going to give you what you need.
We're going to give you clarity in the mission.
We're not going to start things we can't finish, clear objectives that advance the national interest.
So it has been an honor.
We are full speed ahead.
We're going to keep going, and I'm just grateful for the opportunity.
Talk about recruitment.
This is one of the greatest things.
Recruitment is at record numbers, is that correct?
It is.
It is.
And by the way, you know, we have young men that were coming up to us at our chapter leadership summit saying, I'm going to sign up for the military because I believe President Trump has the country's best interests and they're inspired by you.
Walk through the numbers of how recruitment is going right now.
Well, I think we do have a room full of 15, 16, and 17-year-olds.
Future members.
Future potential members of the military.
So it's a target-rich environment, as we say.
But it has been incredible to watch young Americans respond to the leadership of President Trump and then what we're doing at the department.
And a lot of it is the family business, too.
I mean, one of the challenges I saw when I wrote the book, The War on Warriors, and just inside military formations, is you had men and women who have served who were starting to say, I don't know that I can recommend to my kids or grandkids that they serve because of what's been done to the military.
And seeing that generational change where vets and others are saying, I see what you guys are doing.
I like it.
I get it.
And I'm going to encourage my kids and grandkids to go serve is an honor.
And so the reaction has been incredible.
I mean, it's not like this.
I mean, it's a rocket ship from November.
So what are some of those numbers?
I think you hit the recruitment goal like nine months early.
We hit the Army recruiting goal.
I mean, we hit the Army recruiting goal four or five months early.
We hit the, and the Marine Corps always hits its goal.
You know why the Marine Corps hits its goal?
And I'm not allowed to be biased anymore.
I have to be bipartisan across the services.
Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space.
Because the Marine Corps stuck to its core function, you know, from the beginning, of high standards of lethality.
And young men and women are attracted to excellence.
And so that was a recruiting option and opportunity they maintained.
But we saw it in the Air Force, Space Force, and Navy where they've hit record numbers as well.
So across the board, recruiting at record levels, it's almost like, and we have, you know, President Trump understands polls.
It's about the best poll you could get from the American people.
Are we willing to give our sons and daughters to Uncle Sam for military service?
Amen.
And that response has been really important.
And they were at troubling lows under Biden, is that right?
Not just troubling lows, but lows, they couldn't meet the numbers even close.
And so what they did to try to game the system was lower the numbers by tens of thousands of recruits for goals for the next year.
And then they couldn't meet that.
So they weren't even meeting the lowered goals of what.
And does it surprise anybody?
I mean, you had videos, recruiting videos that were like, I signed up because I have two mommies.
That's right.
And they were cartoons of this.
Yes, there were cartoons of this.
Opposed that with like, you should sign up because you can do something tough and meaningful and purposeful on behalf of your country.
That is what we believe the patriots of America are attracted to, and you've seen it.
And I know, correct me if I'm wrong, war games are up, right?
Efficiency is up.
Recruitment, as I mentioned, is up.
We're getting wokeness totally out of the military.
So kind of give us, and by the way, this is lesser reported of what's so great about the military is when you have someone like Pete, you can actually remove stuff pretty quick as long as the courts don't get in the way, right?
Is that you've been able to remove a lot of the wokeness very quickly.
I mean, we went because we are a top-down Organization, which is part of the reason why they were able to insert a lot of the woke nonsense so quickly.
Because it was either comply, follow lawful orders from a previous commander-in-chief on these woke ideological gender stuff, DEI stuff, critical race theory stuff, or you're out.
And so you have a lot of folks that probably didn't want to go along with it, but they wanted to continue to serve, and so they did.
So in many parts of the government, it's been a hostile takeover, right?
You think of other departments, education department, labor department, HHS, you name it, it's a fight, right?
I feel like for the most part at the Defense Department, it's been a liberation exercise.
It has been.
That's not the Department of Education.
No, it's not.
Because the vast majority of the men and women, and there's problem sets and we've fired folks and for the right reasons, but the vast majority of folks in uniform and contractors and civilians that work at DOD are patriots who want to do right by the nation.
And it's not because they're Republicans or Democrats.
It's because they want to serve the country and serve our warfighters.
And so we've gotten the politics, the ideology, the climate worship, the gender confusion.
All the woke crap is out.
It's, and we, we've, quickly and aggressively.
We want the best of the best in any position, and people respond to that.
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And physical fitness standards, I think you made egalitarian across the board, right?
No special accommodation.
Yeah, I mean, if you're in a combat, this is such, this is.
I'm sorry you have to explain this.
It's all common sense stuff.
Everyone listening here understands this.
Like if you're on the battlefield, a 155 round or a rucksack or a human being or, you know, lifting something, it doesn't care if you're a man or a woman.
Doesn't care.
Can you execute or not?
And that's the standards we're injecting into physical fitness, into combat standards, into preparedness standards.
And if high-speed individuals from any background can make it, great.
But if you can't cut it, you're not going to be in the infantry or you're not going to be in special forces because we need the best of the best.
So it's common sense application of stuff that a lot of folks are responding to.
And we see the morale go.
How has this been received?
You think it's Liberation Day?
There's a lot of thank yous, I'm sure.
A lot of gratitude.
And at least that's what I'm getting from the grassroots, like finally, because it was going in a very trepidatious direction where the military felt like a social experiment under Biden.
I got to be honest, Pete, regardless of people's opinion of what happened, I think President Trump handled it beautifully with Iran.
It gave me faith back in our military, though, that we were able to fly bombers from Missouri all the way across the world.
Can you just go bring us as much as you can?
I know you got plenty of classified information, but bring us into the mindset, into how spectacular of a military operation that was.
All public stuff, you know.
Because I think it's time to brag on our military, because from the refueling to the stamina, no military in the world could have done this.
Not only could no military in the world do this, it's not even close.
Let alone do it and do it effectively and nearly flawlessly, while some deception operations, some of which are classified, ensured that the eyes of the world were somewhere else.
And Iran and their allies, no one in the world had any idea that our seven B-2 bombers, escorted by dozens and dozens of refuelers, what it takes for them to fly across the country.
Explain that, the whole refueling?
If you've never seen it, Google it.
I've had a chance to watch it in the cockpit.
I mean, you're going 500 miles an hour.
You're connecting with basically a flying gas station, which pumps fuel into the B-2s, but also the fighters, while you're flying 500, 600 miles an hour.
There's basically no room for error.
There can be turbulence.
It's in the middle of the night.
There's other bombers, other B-2s, other fighters.
I mean, the precision of our men and women that go into the ability to do that and do that.
Does any other military in the world be able to do that?
No. 36 hours refueling?
No, I mean, there are refuelers.
Sure, but nothing like that.
Nothing like what we are able to do.
And by the way, the B-2, as beautiful as the B-2 is, is we already have online the next generation of the B-2, the B-21, which is publicly known.
I mean, we're not stopping at where we are.
We're staying ahead with where we're going to include the F-47, which we announced, the sixth-generation fighter jet, even more stealth, even more capable than the F-35.
So, I mean, it's the best tools in the world in the hands of the best warfighters.
And President Trump gave him very clear guidance.
They trained on this for years and years.
The munitions we used were specifically designated, as Raisin Kane pointed out, for that target.
And you had the fighter jets, the deception, the ability to fly.
I mean, we were watching in real time in the situation room as it was going on, the 30 tomahawks shot from a submarine in real time that hit simultaneously with our bombers coming in.
Iran didn't see any of it, and the world didn't know until President Trump put out a truth, which is exactly how you want it to be.
Our boys and bombers, as I said at the press conference, and then the media was like, you can't call them boys and bombers.
There were two female pilots.
I'm like, I know.
It's called the turn of a phrase, and by the chance...
Exactly.
But I actually got to meet those two female pilots who were incredible, by the way, and said, thank you for what you said.
They're amazing.
It was just, it was awe-inspiring and breathtaking.
And it wasn't just Fordot, Natans, and Esfahan, the three nuclear sites that felt it that night.
It was the whole world.
Totally.
And it was a huge step in reestablishing deterrence so that the world understands, you know, the Afghanistan debacle you saw under Biden is not the reality of the world under President Trump.
And that's how you get peace through strength.
Adversaries that understand you want peace, but you will use strength.
And there's no troops on the ground, no U.S. troops dead, no nukes for Iran, no endless war, no Middle East conflict, no regime change.
That's pretty awesome.
I mean, it pretty satisfies, at least in my, every criteria I would possibly have.
And so, Pete, here's a silly question.
Did they really not use the restroom for 36 hours?
That capability is classified.
Ah, okay.
The restroom is classified.
Or not, or lack thereof.
Let's just say they have ways around it, yes.
Okay, good.
But no, I just want to reinforce what I said, because I'll be honest, I was starting to lose faith in the capability of our military under Biden.
I don't know if you guys in the audience felt the same, but it was like so woke.
It was just refreshing.
Like, wow, we had a seamless intercontinental multi-day military operation that couldn't have gone better.
I mean, it was a 10.
It was absolutely a 10.
And it does go to the skill of from the CENTCOM commander down to all the wing commanders to the base commanders to the air defenders with the Patriot missile systems.
But what we keep hearing time and time again is morale is up because we're being allowed to do our job.
To go back to the basics and focus on what we do well, which is train, be ready, hold people accountable.
You've untied our hands.
You hear that from our counterterrorism folks that are ensuring that ISIS stays at bay in limited places we don't even know about.
Hey, we have authorities we didn't have before, so that they're on the run as well.
So it's actually, you have a military prepared and raring to go with the right kind of leadership.
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You mentioned something, and again, I never want to put you on the spot on stuff you can't talk about, but you said it established deterrence.
I think it was a shot hurt around the world.
I think our other adversaries were studying it closely, especially China, and they were just flummoxed by this.
Can you elaborate that to the best ability that you can?
Well, I mean, nothing happens in a vacuum.
Just like Afghanistan didn't happen in a vacuum.
So what happened after Afghanistan?
You had Ukraine, you had October 7th, you had Vladimir Putin, and you had Hamas, who believed they were emboldened in a world where America looked weak.
I think the actions, not just of this B-2 of Operation Midnight Hammer, which is the primary, but even our campaign against the Houthis, which went on for 50 days or so, we've since learned reflections.
Part of the reason the Houthis didn't join in with any real solidarity on the Iran effort is because they've been decimated in their capabilities.
They'll bark a lot, but they know exactly what they can't do and how decimated they are.
It's just like Iran.
They're going to bark, but when they shot those 14 missiles at our base, as President Trump has said, they told us where they were shooting and when they were shooting to make sure we would shoot them down because they didn't want an escalation and because they understand what we're capable of.
They saw what happened.
And I don't say that in any cavalier sense.
President Trump used that moment alongside what Israel did so successfully to bring about peace.
We have a chance now for a deal that ensures Iran doesn't have nuclear capabilities and we have a peace, something that wasn't possible before that.
Same thing with the Houthis, the reality that under Joe Biden, we allowed our ships to get shot at with no consequence.
We can't live in a world where American military ships are shot at and nothing happens, or you just shoot an empty building.
President Trump said, change that dynamic.
We unleashed CENTCOM to do that.
They very effectively did it.
And the Houthis came to us and said, no, Moss, we're uncle.
We cry, uncle, we're done.
We're not going to shoot at your ships anymore.
And our ships have transited the BAM freely and successfully.
That's a reestablishment of American leadership that isn't entanglement or seeking escalation or seeking a prolonged conflict.
It's meant to send a very direct message with a very discreet mission, which I think serves our warfighters well as well.
So we're running out of time here.
And by the way, Pete, thank you for taking time to speak to all of our students.
I mean, so many people, when they go in government, they kind of like forget where they came from.
You know, Pete has come to like every turning point event over the last 10 years.
This guy's a machine.
And I'll tell you, anybody that routinely would host Fox and Friends weekend and get up at 3.30 in the morning, that's how I know you were cut out for the job, because that's no joke.
But Pete, you made an announcement, I think yesterday, the day before, that's a little wonky, but it's actually one of the most important things I've heard from our government, which is he who controls the drones controls the future.
And if you don't make your own drones, you're actually going to be a vassal state to those who make the drones.
And I know this, like, some in the audience might say, what are you talking about?
This is one of the most important things.
I think it's all about AI and drones going forward for defense.
I don't know if you agree with that, Pete, or not, but you signed, it wasn't an executive order, it was proclamation, something with drones.
Pretty awesome video.
What is the significance for American security for drone technology?
And what did you announce?
Well, you unleash American innovation to actually not just scale up, but outscale our adversaries who just look at where warfare is and where it's going.
It's going to be AI-enabled and it's going to be drone-fueled, and you're seeing it right now.
And we can either sit back and fight the way we think we should, or we wanted to, or we thought warfare was going, or recognize where it's going and outpace our adversaries.
And we have the economic engine, the defense industrial base, to do that.
But the Defense Department, especially under the previous administration, can be very good at being a big, bloated bureaucracy that defeats itself.
And so it creates lots of rules, lots of restrictions, lots of red tape, lots of reasons why.
I mean, I can go through two or three examples, but I'll spare you, that held back our ability to make cheap, attritable, American-made drones that you can use as one-way attack.
You can use for surveillance.
You can use for ISR.
You can use small unit level.
I mean, some are this big, some are big.
Well, the Chinese have a B that they've created.
The Chinese, the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Iranians.
I mean, there's innovations happening.
We need to be in front of that, and we will be quickly.
And this only unleashes us to do that.
So you look at that.
You look at AI.
You look at computing.
You look at hypersonics.
You name it.
We are unleashing innovators by thinking outside the box, taking off the shelf, incentivizing private industry to compete in a way that DOD has never done before and is required because of the environment we live in.
America either leads or we're left without options.
And the reason we had a B-2 that could do that is because someone 40 years ago was willing to say, this is a technology of the future that will put decisions in the hands of presidents.
And our job is to look around the corner and say, what are the technologies of the future that somebody 40 years from now is going to use?
And hopefully they look back and say, Secretary Hegseth and that generation saw the value in that, invested in it, even though I'm never going to see it while I'm the Secretary of Defense.
And so that's part of putting your shoulder to the plow for.
And you think about the profundity of that.
Someone 40 years ago gave President Trump the ability to remove a nuclear program with no troops, no endless war, no quagmire, no U.S. troops dead.
40 years ago, you would have had to have bodies and boots on the ground, right?
Or you'd have to at least have some stationed aircraft.
It would have been impossible.
Final question, and I know we've got to go.
We're getting the yank here.
Pete, you're about to address our 7,000 students.
Give us a little preview.
What's your message to these students going to be?
You're going to do a little recruiting, and then a little bit of a pump-up.
What's your message to these students, and generally the people watching at home?
What is your message to the young people of this country?
Well, the overall message of this administration is, hey, we are putting America first.
It is peace through strength, and it's the application of common sense.
But also, I'm going to start by talking about, hey, yeah, I got an incredible, I've been gifted with an incredible day job on behalf of our warfighters.
But ultimately, you know, it's about God and family first.
And that understanding.
And I don't, you know, we all get caught up in what we're doing and where we're going and the purpose life we want to live.
But what's really important, a quick reminder up front with that, and then maybe we'll tell a few fun stories because I know when I'm talking to my kids, they don't want to hear what I have, they don't want to hear about my throne memo.
They want to hear a few good stories too.
So we'll do a little bit of that too.
Pete, thank you.
We have your back.
I just want you to know that millions of people are praying for you.
They're in the trenches for you.
We had your back during the not boring confirmation fight.
And Pete.
And by the way, thank you for the prayers.
So many people tell me that, and it means everything.
God bless you, Pete Hegseth.
Thank you guys so much.
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
Email us as alwaysfreedom at charliekirk.com.
Thanks so much for listening.
God bless.
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