Pete Hegseth
Illustration, not an archive object
Secretary of Defense (styled Secretary of War) · United States
On the regime page: Trump administration
5 quotes, oldest first. Filter with other speakers.
“VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Hegseth replied to a message from Vice President Vance, who had written that he disliked 'bailing Europe out again', in a chat about planned US strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. The Atlantic's editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been added to the chat by mistake.
Message in a Signal group chat, March 2025, published by The Atlantic in March 2025, as quoted by Fortune, "Leaked texts show Trump administration's dislike of Europe", 25 March 2025 Source
Content note: Body-weight remark about service members. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world, it’s a bad look.”
Speech to several hundred general and flag officers summoned from around the world, announcing ten directives on fitness, grooming and conduct standards. President Trump spoke at the same event.
Remarks of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to general and flag officers, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, 30 September 2025, transcript published by Air & Space Forces Magazine Source
Content note: Derogatory phrase about transgender service members; profanity. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions, no more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that shit.”
Passage of the Quantico speech on the administration's removal of diversity programmes and related policies from the Department of Defense (renamed Department of War by executive order in September 2025).
Remarks of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to general and flag officers, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, 30 September 2025, transcript published by Air & Space Forces Magazine Source
“You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct and don’t necessarily belong always in polite society.”
From the closing section of the Quantico speech, which Hegseth called 'another Liberation Day, the liberation of America’s warriors, in name, in deed, and in authorities.'
Remarks of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to general and flag officers, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, 30 September 2025, transcript published by Air & Space Forces Magazine Source
Content note: Declares 'no quarter, no mercy' for enemy forces. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”
Said during the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, about two weeks into the war. CNN and legal commentators noted that an order to deny quarter to enemy combatants is prohibited under the laws of war, and that the remark could also be read as rhetoric; the briefing video was webcast by DVIDS and C-SPAN.
Press briefing by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, 13 March 2026, as quoted by CNN, "Denying the enemy 'quarter' may sound like tough talk, but it would be a war crime", 18 March 2026 Source