Hegseth’s Big Rollout: Military Standards or Political Show?

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned America’s top military leaders to Quantico for a sweeping speech on merit, fitness, and readiness—vowing to scrap DEI initiatives and return to a “warrior ethos.” Supporters call it common sense reform, while critics argue the highly publicized event blurred the line between leadership and political theater.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader, Chris Markowski, Pete.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Pep Talk Yeah, Pete Haig Seth. The Defense Sectary summoned,
summoned nearly all American general and flag officers and senior
enlisted officers to Quantico, Virginia site to behold. And again

(00:38):
all sorts of speculation was taken place and was announced
and certain people are saying, well, is that smart? And
what about the security issues? YadA, YadA, YadA. Haig Seth
heg Seth went up there and talked about merit based culture,

(01:00):
high standards of physical fitness training, things that he feels
are necessary to win wars. Okay against the things he
put in there, common sense changes looking to return the

(01:21):
United States military to a high state of readiness. Talked
about some of woke stuff, trying to get rid of
that baggage and I quote, no more identity months, DEI offices,
dudes and dresses, no more climate change worship, no more
division distraction or gender delusions. Were done with that shit.

(01:43):
That's what he said again, We'll see again. I didn't
think it was a bad quite Frankly, I never really
seemed to understand how one could be an enlisted officer
in the military. I don't care if you're how high
you are up the ranks and be fact, I don't

(02:07):
even how does that say an example? In fact, I
don't even understand it when I see it. That drives
me nuts. When I see police officers that are overweight,
I'm like, I see you know, you see that all
in New York seity drives the craziest police officers that
can you know, they can barely walk they're so big.
I mean they come out I guess during the Saint
Patri's Date parade, and I guess their first you know,

(02:29):
official duty. You know, most of time at a death somewhere.
It's not like you're gonna be able to chase a
kirk down or anything like that. You have a heart attack.
How is that okay? I mean you are a police officer,
you mean shaped the same thing. I would think that
being able to set a good example and to pass
fitness tests would be part for the course. Donald Trumph

(02:52):
gave a speech. Again, it was one of those all
over the place speeches. Is he's got to tone down Castro.
He really does, I mean he can. He goes off
on these various different tas. I don't know what direction
he's going, and I get bored him pretty quickly, and
I move on the issue that I have with this.

(03:14):
And I knew this was happening. I was disappointed that
they aired it. I was disappointed that they decided to
put this on TV and put cameras in there for
all the world to see. Pete, you're the You're the
head coach, right, You're the guy in charge. You're the

(03:37):
guy in charge, and you're obviously trying to garner some
respect from these people. And again it's difficult, difficult for you.
You've you've heard the noise. Oh yeah, I have served
in the military or Fox News hosts and some of
the pecadillos that have happened in your past. I get
all of that, but look, yeah, look at yourself like

(04:00):
a head coach. You're a head coach of let's say
the say you're the head coach of the New York Giants. Pete,
I'll make it better. You're the head coach in the
New York Jets. Put you in there instead of Aaron Glenn,
and you call a team meeting, call a team meeting,
and and everyone everyone, the team, the trainers, everybody there,

(04:25):
all the top people are there, and you're going to basically,
you know, lay down the law, your standards. You invite
the media into something like that. No, no, that that
I don't think is going to get much respect. Just not.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Just not.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know, some things just need to be behind closed doors.
You can put out a statement, could have put out
a statement after the fact that this is what we
went over, these are some of the initiatives, are some
of the things we're going to do. But when you
make that conversation in front of cameras and lights, I
got a sinking suspicion. And I've spoken to say to

(05:15):
people that in the military, and you don't appreciate that
that a lot of men just see through that and say, oh,
this is politics, this is a show. And that's one
thing that you want to separate when it comes to military.
You want the country to know that the military is
outside of politics. Again, I understand what you did. You

(05:36):
want to explain, you want to change the you know,
you got that warrior ethos. I appreciate all that, and
I think the enlisted men in this country, they're into that.
Not to mention the fact, you take a look, you're
doing a great job as far as the numbers, as
far as bringing in new recruits and enlisted people. That's
that's all well and good, okay, But sometimes you know,

(06:00):
it is family business, Okay, family business. Team business needs
to be held behind closed doors, not for all the
world to say. Watchdog on Wallstreet dot Com