Military recruitment and reenlistment suffered significantly under Joe Biden’s command.
Things were so dire in the Spring of 2024 that the United States Army and Air Force issued calls for retirees to return to active duty.
Recruiting was hampered by COVID-19 vaccine requirements as well as an increasingly woke military atmosphere where trans soldiers are give special privileges while Christian soldiers are persecuted, bases host drag shows, and leaders with a history of anti-white statements are hired.
During the Biden administration, Ashish Vazirani, the Pentagon‘s acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness, testified to the House Armed Services Committee that in 2023, the U.S. military missed recruiting goals by 41,000.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had positive news for President Trump during a Cabinet meeting that indicated recruitement is rapidly improving under the President’s leadership.
Hegseth shared, “We saw record recruitment in 2025, Mr. President. The first 2 weeks of 2026 already blows that out, FY2026, already blows it out of the water.”
“In fact, reenlistment’s already met its year-long goal in the Marine Corps in 2026 — in 2 weeks.”
“There’s no other way to create that kind of love and enthusiasm than with your leadership, sir.”
Watch:
@SecWar announces RECORD military recruitment numbers for FY 2026:
“We saw record recruitment in 2025, Mr. President. The first 2 weeks of 2026 already blow it out of the water. In fact, reenlistment’s already met its year-long goal in the Marine Corps in 2026 — in 2 weeks.” pic.twitter.com/KrzNP3xzi7
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 9, 2025
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the military was more focused on a woke agenda than war-fighting.
Some of President Donald Trump’s first actions after returning to the White House in January were shifting the military’s DEI focus and returning to building the best fighting force on the planet.
The Gateway Pundit reported that President Trump signed executive orders to root leftist ideology out of the military and prioritize lethality. including the “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” executive order and the “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” executive order.
In September, Secretary Hegseth ordered all of the US’s top military commanders to gather at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, where he delivered a “rallying cry for military exceptionalism” and a mandate to restore a “warfighting ethos” in the Department of War.