ICYMI: Tuberville Op-ed: Pete Hegseth, the Change Agent America Needs to Clean up the DOD

"With Secretary Pete Hegseth at the helm, our military will be strong again. It will be respected again. And it will be feared by our adversaries around the world."

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) penned an op-ed on X supporting President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. A highly decorated veteran, Hegseth has dedicated his life to serving the military, veterans, and our great country. In the piece, Sen. Tuberville exposes the woke "social experiment" that has weakened our military under President Biden and urges his Senate colleagues to swiftly confirm Trump's nominee.

Yesterday, Senator Tuberville met with Pete Hegseth to discuss his vision for the Pentagon.

Read excerpts from the piece below or here.

"Many Americans believe Washington, D.C. is broken. And I'm right there with them. Since coming to the Senate in 2021, I've seen our government working largely to benefit only a small group of people-bureaucrats, career politicians, special interests, and the elites of society.

Thankfully, on November 5th, nearly 77 million Americans joined me in taking a stand to say enough is enough. The American people gave President Trump a mandate to get Washington working for the people again. We chose President Trump because he isn't interested in the same old, same old in this town. No more business as usual.

President Trump is already shaking things up in Washington. By nominating Pete Hegseth as the next Secretary of Defense, President Trump answered the call of the American people by nominating someone who is not beholden to the Military Industrial Complex. Pete Hegseth will be a leader for everyone serving in the military-not just the military elites. We don't need another Admiral, General, or "person of high command" interested in appeasing the elites. We need a drill sergeant, someone who's been in the trenches. That man is Pete Hegseth, and he is just the change agent America needs to clean up the DOD.

Over the last four years, we have seen the Biden-Harris administration do all it can to remake the military into a left-wing social experiment at the expense of our national security. Don't believe me? In 2024, the Biden Pentagon requested a jaw-dropping $114.7 million for its DEI programs. To put that in perspective, that's about what it costs to cover the 26,000-square-foot expansion to a missile integration facility in Huntsville, which is expected to bring 185 new jobs to the area.

We've also seen the DOD wrongfully fire 8,000 military service members who had legitimate concerns about taking experimental vaccines. The DOD has also spent countless taxpayer dollars to fund abortions and transgender procedures. Perhaps most egregious is that the DOD failed its seventh consecutive audit in a row, unable to account for its $824 billion budget. Running the DOD like a liberal human resources department comes at a devastating cost. Our recruitment numbers have collapsed, likely as a result of the DOD's emphasis on progressive priorities. […]

Which is why I am asking my Senate Republican colleagues to support Pete Hegseth's nomination. I could go on all day highlighting the incompetence of the current leadership at DOD. But Pete Hegseth is highly qualified for this role in his own right. He is a decorated veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He's got the brains to boot, attending Princeton University where he also played basketball on a team that made the NCAA tournament, and then went on to attend the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Pete Hegseth is a patriot. He was born to serve our country in this position. I trust he will surround himself with the right personnel to fully deliver on what the American people sent President Trump back to the White House to accomplish. With Secretary Pete Hegseth at the helm, our military will be strong again. It will be respected again. And it will be feared by our adversaries around the world."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, and HELP Committees.

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