The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Pete Hegseth’s Military

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

The Pentagon’s budget is going to shrink and Americans are going to get a better “bang for their buck” under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “Did you notice that of all the controversial Trump nominees—Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, RFK, Tulsi Gabbard—the Left went after Pete Hegseth the most vehemently? And he required JD Vance to break that tie. There was a reason for that. He is proposing radical changes in the Pentagon. Remember where we are right now with the Pentagon. We spend $820 billion a year. It's about 14% of the entire budget and it's immune to criticism. It really is.  “And we are building $14 billion carriers. We're building $85 million F-35s. We have built $140 million F-22s. And we're watching, in Ukraine and the Middle East, the entire mode of 21st-century warfare being revolutionized. It's more of—not that we're going to have bad quality, but it's more quantity than quality. They're flooding the zones with cheap drones—cheap drones on the ocean, in the air, and on land. “And we're not there yet. We're not doing it. So, what Pete Hegseth wants to do is change the entire manner of procurement.”  For Victor’s latest thoughts, go to: https://victorhanson.com/  Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHqkXbgqrDrDVInBMSoGQgQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you notice that of all the controversial Trump nominees, the left went after Pete Hicks said the most vehemently, there was a reason for that. He is proposing radical changes in the Pentagon. What we have now is more or less a monopoly. We have Raytheon, we have the Boston Military Group, we have Northrop, we have General Dynamics, we have Lockheed. And the way it has worked is that four-star generals rotate out, they work for these consortia, and then they use their contacts of subordinate officers to favor

their procurement. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but it's an inherent conflict of interest. And Pete HECF is going to stop that. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanssen for the Daily Signal. I'd like to speak a little bit today very briefly about the Pentagon under new Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett. Did you notice that of all the controversial Trump nominees, Cash Patel, Pete Hesb. HECF, Pam Bondi, R. F.K. Tulsi Gabbard, the left one after Pete HECSeth the most vehemently, and he required J.D. Vance to break that tie. There was a reason for that. He is proposing radical changes in the Pentagon. Remember where we are right now with the Pentagon. We spend $820 billion a year.

It's about 14% of the entire budget. And it's immune to criticism. It really is. And we are building $14 billion carriers. We're building $85 million F-35s. We have built $140 million F-22s. And we're watching in Ukraine and the Middle East the entire mode of 21st century warfare being revolutionized. It's more of not that we're going to have bad quality, but it's more quantity and quality. They're flooding the zones with cheap drones, cheap drones on the ocean, in the air and on land. And we're not there yet. We're not doing it. So what Pete Hexeth wants to do is change the entire manner of procurement.

What we have now is more or less a monopoly. We have Raytheon. We have the Boston Military Group. We have Northrop. We have General Dynamics. We have Lockheed. And the way it has worked is that four-star generals who have very, generous pensions rotate out. They work for these consortia, and then they use their contacts of

subordinate officers to favor their procurement. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but it's an inherent conflict of interest. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin Business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk. Business. And Pete Hexeth is going to stop that. And he can stop it in a number of ways. First is, he can just go back to what we used to do. We used to say that a military officer cannot be Secretary of Defense. in the civilian role. But the last two are fine men, General Mattis, I know him, whom I like, and also General

Austin, we waived that. I don't think we should continue to do that. There was a reason we had a law. I wrote that we should waive it for Jim Mattis, because I thought he was a superb artist. Looking back, I think it puts too much pressure on the military officers to distance themselves. So it would be better to have that position as a civilian one. Another thing we're going to do is whether we like it or not, we're going to get rid of D.I.

And he's already doing it. He's going to save, I think, billions of dollars. And that has already had a profound effect. We have record number of recruitment per day. It's accelerating at almost 10,000 a month. And we were down 40 or 50,000 recruits. And the military, instead of saying this is a crisis, said, well, we really didn't need 40 or 50. So we met our goals.

No, no, no, we were down. And now we're not down. And you can see that socially, culturally, Pete is trying to associate with the rank and file. Lift weights with him, jog. It's going to be a people's person, defense secretary. He's also not going to tolerate retired admirals and generals that come out of the woodwork during election season, use their rank. They're still subject to Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

which is enforced against lower-ranking officer. The statute says that retired our serving flag officers shall not disparage major civilian officials in the executive branch. Cabinet officers, vice president, especially the present. And yet we've seen in these recent news cycles, I won't mention all of the general's names, but they've called their commander-in-chief a fascist, a Nazi-like, a Mussolini character, an architect of Auschwitz,

a liar, a chief. who should be removed sooner, just terrible things, with impunity. We're not going to see that anymore under Pete Hexeth. So the procurement will be different, recruitment will be different. Retired officers will adhere to the code. There'll be no more, less conflict of interest. There's a lot of fat in that budget with DEI. And he's basically sending a message that we're not going to look at the superficial color of one skin

or their religion or their gender, we're going to look at the content of their character, and more importantly, even than that, the ability to fight well for the United States. And I think he's going to be very successful. He's going to be very controversial. And that's why the left went after him more than anybody else. And I think that the Pentagon budget will shrink

and it will be more bang for the buck. And it's just all welcome. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Seag. Thank you for watching today's podcast. And for more news like that, subscribe to the Daily Signal. Maybe you can check out my own website at victorhansson.com for podcast, lectures, ultra-series behind a paywall, but more importantly, just daily columns that are accessible and free to everyone.

Thank you very much.