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Marine Veteran Says Hegseth Is A 'Laughing Stock' Within Defense Department
Kelby Vera
Mon, October 6, 2025
Former Fakes News entertainer turned Defense Secretary: LAUGHINGSTOCK
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) thinks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s recent attempt to flex his power was a total misfire.
Asked about the summit of top military officials that Hegseth pulled together this past Tuesday, Gallego told “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper it seemed clear that the Fox News personality-turned-cabinet member was throwing his weight around in order “to compensate for something.”
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Gallego, a veteran of the Marine Corps.
Suggesting that the gathering revealed how Hegseth and President Trump’s administration are looking to use the military for political gain, the senator added, “Everything he did at that meeting, he could have sent in an email. He was just trying to, I don’t know, show force, and he looked very weak in the process.”
Pressed to say more about what Hegseth was trying to “compensate for,” Gallego said it likely boiled down to “the fact he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“He knows that within the Department of Defense, people think he’s a laughingstock and that he is probably one of the worst Secretaries of Defense this country has had,” he explained. “I think he’s trying to exert his power over some of these generals, but it’s not going to help when he is clearly way out of his league.”
Multiple military leaders who attended the event agreed with Gallego’s reading.
One defense official who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity said that the whole affair “could have been an email” while another called it a “total waste of money” that was “not quite a loyalty test” but seemed meant to gauge something “on the spectrum of loyalty to ideology.”
It likely cost taxpayers several millions of dollars for top military brass stationed around the globe to be summoned to the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, for Tuesday’s mandatory meeting.
During an event which lasted not much more than an hour, Hegseth ranted about “fat generals” while also declaring an end to “ideological garbage” and a return of “warrior ethos” in the armed forces.
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Former Army vice chief of staff ‘concerned’ about Hegseth’s ‘attack on women’
Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the former Army vice chief of staff, said he is “concerned” about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “attack on women” in the military on Sunday.
“I’m concerned about what I considered an attack on women, and the fact that there are people who say that women have been let into different combat fields and cannot meet the standards,” Chiarelli said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I just don’t believe that’s true.”
Chiarelli’s remarks come days after Hegseth, during a speech to more than 800 generals and admirals, said that every combat role should return “to the highest male standard” of their respective branches.
“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” Hegseth said Tuesday in Quantico, Va. “It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify — because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”
Each military branch has its own physical fitness test, with current iterations featuring different criteria based on gender.
For example, the Army fitness test — a five-event assessment that requires 350 points to pass — says men from ages 17-21 must deadlift 150 pounds to receive 60 points, 220 pounds to receive 75 points and 340 pounds to receive 100 points. For women ages 17-21, they must lift 120 pounds for 60 points, 140 pounds for 75 points and 220 pounds for 100 points.
But combat roles, including infantry, armor and pararescue, are subject to gender-neutral fitness standards. Starting in January 2016, all military roles were made open to women.
“I know when the Army opened up the Ranger program, the standards did not change at all. Not at all,” Chiarelli added. “And the fact of the matter is on today’s battlefield, everybody’s in combat.”
Prior to his Senate confirmation, Hegseth told senators he supported women serving in all positions in the military. According to the Pentagon’s 2023 Demographics Report, there are more than 225,000 active-duty women in the armed forces, accounting for nearly 18 percent of active service members.
Hegseth had previously expressed disapproval of women serving in combat roles. Last month, the Pentagon eliminated a decades-old advisory committee on women in the armed forces.
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