No More Posture of Weakness: Secretary of War Speaks at Cabinet Meeting

Another great excerpt from Thursday's White House Cabinet meeting; this time it's Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, with an update on the administration and the War Department's efforts to make our military into a cadre of warriors.

.@SecWar on reversing the Biden admin's posture of weakness on the world stage: "We're having to rebuild how our enemies perceive us, and when @POTUS said we're not getting a nuclear Iran... he meant it—and we sent those B-2s halfway around the world, and they never noticed." pic.twitter.com/XKQnVf3zko
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 29, 2026

Secretary Hegseth said:

Mr. President, you had to, like so many other cabinet members have referenced, rebuild the perception of America, and at the Department of War, that meant reestablishing a deterrent. What happened in Afghanistan, what happened in Ukraine, a war that never would have occurred, what happened on October 7th in Israel, never would have happened under President Trump. So, as a result, we're having to rebuild how our enemies perceive us.

That's a key point. Much of the international community, friend and foe alike, clearly harbored little respect for the befuddled old Joe Biden and his cadre of incompetents. A fish rots from the head, as the saying goes, and weakness, likewise, proliferates from the head. That's changing now; the Secretary of War continues:

And when President Trump said, we're not getting a nuclear Iran, you won't have a nuclear bomb, he meant it. And we sent those B-2s halfway around the world, and they (Iran) never noticed. When he said we're not going to tolerate trafficking drugs anymore, in our hemisphere, we treat them like the al Qaeda of the western hemisphere; he meant it, and we're executing that.

It's all about how we, the United States, are perceived in the world; it's all about how willing an administration is to follow words with kinetic action.

You've said, Mr. President, that we're securing the border, and the military was proud to do their part alongside Homeland Security to do that. Same thing with Iran right now. Ensuring that they have all the options to make a deal, that they should not pursue nuclear capabilities, and we will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department. Just like we did this month, no other military in the world could have executed the most sophisticated, powerful raid, not just in American history, I would say in world history. What those men did, going downtown, another country, the most secure place in the most secure base in the middle of the night, without anybody knowing until those simultaneous bombs dropped three minutes before the helicopters dropped. No other country could coordinate that. No other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way, to be that effective. And that sends a message to every capital around the world, that when President Trump speaks, he means business, and we are re-establishing that deterrence at the War Department.

That's the stuff.

U.S. Joint Chiefs Call for a First-Ever Meeting of Western Hemisphere Military Leaders

There is more that needs to be done. Our Navy isn't all it should be, and building ships isn't something that can be done overnight. Our Air Force's vaunted front-line fighter aircraft are unmatched, but we don't have enough of them. Worst of all is the F-22 Raptor, the best air-superiority fighter in the world, but if we lose one, there will be no replacement. Every war, every conflict, is lost or won on logistics, and we, at present, can't sustain these aircraft in any prolonged conflict.

That's what has to happen. And it won't happen in the next three years. It's the work of decades. Let's just hope we can keep the effort up - and let's vote for the folks who will.

Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.

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