Free Republic

I was one of those many, many retired officers who thought it was great when Pete Hegseth walked in and told an assembly of hundreds of generals and admirals that they suck and are fat, and they needed to unsuck and get unfat. Well, he was a little more polite than that, but not much. Of course, when their subordinates screw up in a massive way like these generals and admirals have over the last three decades, these generals and admirals would not have sugarcoated it. There would be no talk of feelings, no hugging. They would nuke their delinquent...

When the headlines scream about trillion-dollar defense budgets vanishing into black holes, it’s a rare jolt to see the Pentagon back a project that actually delivers firepower without draining the taxpayer’s wallet dry. Enter Castelion, [https://www.castelion.com/], the scrappy California-based defense outfit that’s just locked in contracts to bolt its Blackbeard hypersonic missile onto Army and Navy gear—real platforms, not pie-in-the-sky prototypes. Announced yesterday, this deal is a straight shot at fielding weapons that can outpace threats from Beijing to Moscow, all while keeping costs grounded in reality. Castelion, barely three years old and holed up in Torrance with outposts in...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has acted to replace the number-two general in the U.S. Army, little more than halfway through his expected tour. The replacement of Army Vice Chief of Staff James Mingus came as something of a shock, as he was named vice chief of staff in January 2024 and should have served for at least 3 years. His replacement is Lieutenant General Christopher LaNeves, who is serving as Pete Hegseth's senior military assistant. LaNeve is currently a three-star will vault over quite a few senior officers if confirmed by the Senate. This is another case of a...

This is the best all-time Trump I have ever seen (Unfotunately, it's for Spanish-speakers.). It features Trump as lead Cuban-style singer, Hegseth and Rubio on guitars and Cruz on the drums and backup singer. The gals may be Bondi, Noem and I can't recognize the third one. The message is that illegals, Democrats and Maduro have been pulling all kinds of garbage and Trump arrived to put a stop to it. Click here.

Perhaps US intelligence has an idea about who is increasingly the real power behind the throne in BeijingXi Jinping effectively vanished in July and the first half of August. Some China watchers speculated that his unexplained absence was a sign he was losing his grip on power. But he has since reappeared and been very visible again. At the end of the month, he visited Tibet, then indulged in a high-profile, backslapping meeting with Vladimir Putin and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tianjin. He capped off his busy two weeks with the September 3 military parade in Beijing...

The head of the U.S. military's Southern Command will retire later this year, a high-profile departure that comes as the Trump administration strikes alleged drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean and puts pressure on the Venezuelan government. Adm. Alvin Holsey announced his retirement from the U.S. Navy in a statement posted to social media on Thursday. He said he is retiring after 37 years in the Navy in mid-December — just over a year after he was first promoted to lead Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM. "I am confident that you will forge ahead, focused on your mission that strengthens our nation...

Donald Trump is working on establishing a Ukraine victory fund which will be bankrolled by fresh tariffs on China. The US president instructed Scott Bessent, his treasury secretary, to float the plan to European counterparts ahead of Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington DC on Friday. Mr Trump, who previously claimed Mr Zelensky did not “hold the cards” for a military victory, is increasingly losing patience with Vladimir Putin, and his proposal for a Ukraine war shift marks a significant change in his position. His language was mimicked by Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, who told a meeting of...

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Moscow on Wednesday that the United States and its allies would "impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression" if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end. "If we must take this step, the U.S. War Department stands ready to do our part in ways that only the United States can do," Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group of Kyiv's allies at NATO headquarters. Hegseth did not elaborate. His comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is considering a request by Ukraine for long-range Tomahawk...

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on social media that on the way back to the U.S. from NATO’s Defense Ministers meeting, Hegseth’s plane made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom "due to a crack in the aircraft windshield."

Pete Hegseth's Press Releases, Testimony, and Speeches in 2025 (Post-Appointment)Below is a chronological list (oldest to newest) of Pete Hegseth's public press releases, testimony, and speeches after his appointment as Secretary of Defense (renamed Secretary of War) around February 2025. This includes official DoD/War Department statements, congressional testimony, and public addresses sourced from defense.gov (or war.gov) and his official X account (@SecWar). Each entry includes the date, a brief description of the topics covered, the direct link to the statement, and any additional links mentioned within it. A blank line separates each entry for clarity.April 8, 2025: Joint statement with...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday the Department of Defense is forming a new counternarcotics joint task force in order to “crush” drug cartels in the Caribbean Sea. Hegseth said the new task force, established at the direction of President Trump, will operate in the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility. “At the President’s direction, the Department of War is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the @SOUTHCOM area of responsibility to crush the cartels, stop the poison and keep America safe,” Hegseth said in a post on the social platform X. “The message is clear: if...

Speeches by President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to America's top generals and admirals were assailed by anonymous ex-Pentagon employees. "What difference does it make if a general or admiral is too fat to pass any of the fitness requirements that front-line soldiers and sailors are expected to meet?" one source wanted to know. "They're not going to be storming enemy positions or flying combat missions. All they have to do is give orders." Another fretted that "all the effort we've expended to compile a force that exemplifies diversity, equity, and inclusion is being cast aside. We're a...

Pete Hegseth! Remember that guy? Former Fox News weirdo? Famous for drinking on the job? Accused of sexual assault before paying a settlement to make that lawsuit go away? Tapped to head the Department of Defense and then accidentally texted his war plans to the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic? Oh yes, I think you’re quite familiar with Hegseth. He’s a real asshole! And an embarrassing one, too!

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth were accused of 'condescending and insulting' America's top generals and admirals at a highly anticipated summit on Tuesday. The president and Secretary of War hosted hundreds of military chiefs at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday, for a meeting they hoped would inspire the nation and revolutionize America's fighting force. But ex-Pentagon chiefs warned that the political speeches, which meandered through various topics from fat soldiers to Joe Biden's autopen, risked alienating the top brass. A former national security official told the Daily Mail that he found it 'incredibly condescending ... and a highly inappropriate...

0:38 VIDEO AT LINK......................

Today, Secretary Hegseth delivered a historic speech to America's generals and admirals. To describe this as a game changer is perhaps an understatement. Timestamps to the major points in the speech follow. The President also spoke. A separate article detailing his speech will follow later.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said that Medals of Honor for soldiers who took part in an 1890 massacre of Native Americans would not be revoked. More than 300 Lakota Sioux men, women and children were killed by U.S. Army soldiers on Dec. 29, 1890, in one of the deadliest attacks on Native Americans by the United States military. The Lakota people had gathered to resist government control in an area of South Dakota that is now part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation..... In 2019, Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, introduced legislation to revoke...

U.S.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States at the Pentagon, in Washington D.C., U.S., September 11, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tabWASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - U.S. military leaders deployed around the world have started to prepare to travel to Virginia for a meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth next week, which some officials on Friday billed as a gathering focused on the "warrior ethos."Hegseth has summoned U.S. generals and admirals from around the world to a meeting in...

For context, Hegseth explained that the DoD is investigating the involvement of Chinese nationals to assess potential code vulnerabilities in vital US systems. He reiterated that it is indispensable for the end of Chinese participation in DoD systems, prioritizing U.S. national security over corporate profits In any case, Hegseth began his comments by explaining how this program came to be. “Last month, the Department of Defense was made aware of an Obama-Biden era legacy program called Digital escorts. For nearly a decade, Microsoft has used Chinese coders remotely supervised by us contractors to support sensitive DoD cloud systems,” he explained....

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is set to gather senior generals and admirals in Quantico Sept. 30 for a high-stakes, unprecedented meeting shrouded in mystery. Some really big news in the American military community broke this week, as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is convening an unprecedented meeting of his senior generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, September 30th. As the proprietor of a somewhat prolific X account that largely focuses on military matters, many people have been asking me what I think this meeting is all about, as the meeting is currently shrouded in mystery. So what...