Restoring America’s Fighting Force: How Secretary Hegseth and President Trump Ended DEI and Revitalized the Military in 2025

In 2025, the Department of War underwent a necessary cultural and operational shift. Under the leadership of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump, the U.S. military worked tirelessly to end harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideologies and instead refocus the Armed Forces on merit, readiness, lethality, and warfighting. 

This transformation did not happen by chance. It began with clear direction from the Commander in Chief and immediate action from Secretary Hegseth and others at the highest levels of government. These accomplishments and decisive actions include: 

1. Executive Action to Remove DEI from the Military

On January 27, 2025, President Trump signed a landmark Executive Order aimed at restoring a merit-based, apolitical military. This order:

• Banned race- and sex-based preferences in military personnel decisions

• Abolished remnants of DEI bureaucracies within the Armed Forces 

• Ordered comprehensive reviews of curricula at service academies to eliminate radical DEI and gender ideologies

This decisive EO set the tone and course for a military free from divisive social engineering and focused squarely on the mission of deterring and winning wars.

2. Secretary Hegseth’s Implementation and Elimination of DEI Offices

Charged with carrying out the President’s directive, Secretary Hegseth issued his own memorandum, directing the full elimination of DEI offices and initiatives across the Department of War. A Pentagon task force, established at his direction, worked to implement the directive across military installations. 

Hegseth’s leadership ensured that the Pentagon’s culture moved away from identity politics and toward a unified standard based on merit and duty, not race, gender, or ideology.

3. Merit-Only Standards for Promotions, Assignments, and Service Academy Admissions

One of the most consequential shifts under Secretary Hegseth’s leadership was the reform of how the military evaluates service members for promotion and assignment, and how it selects the next generation of officers at the nation’s service academies. DEI-driven practices, including quotas and the consideration of race or sex, were formally prohibited across personnel decisions, promotions, and admissions processes.

Instead, the Department reaffirmed that merit, operational need, character, and individual performance, not identity, will determine career advancement, command opportunities, and admission to elite military institutions. By ending race-based admissions at service academies, the Department restored fairness, equal treatment under the law, and confidence that future officers are selected for their ability to lead and fight.

This return to rigor and fairness is essential to rebuilding trust in leadership decisions and ensuring that America’s military remains the strongest and most capable fighting force in the world.

4. Cultural Reorientation Toward Readiness and Lethality

At a historic gathering of senior commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Secretary Hegseth and President Trump made unmistakably clear that politically correct leadership would no longer define the Pentagon’s priorities. The focus, they declared, would return to fitness, ability, character, and warfighting excellence, not feelings, ideological litmus tests, or social activism. 

Secretary Hegseth also delivered a blunt message to senior officers: those who remain committed to “woke” ideology rather than the mission of winning wars should step aside. The era of accommodating political agendas within the chain of command, is over.

This cultural reset was not merely rhetorical,  it was operational. Policies that distracted from readiness were pushed aside, accountability was restored, and standards for physical performance and professional competence were strengthened across the force.

The Bottom Line: For too long, ideological experimentation distracted the U.S. military from its fundamental mission. In 2025, that trajectory was reversed. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth took concrete action to dismantle DEI bureaucracies, end race-based policies, and restore standards rooted in merit, discipline, and combat effectiveness. These reforms represent a necessary course correction and DOD Watch remains committed to ensuring they are fully enforced, not quietly reversed.