Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point they are now prepared for potential deployment.
About 1,000 cadets graduated from the academy and will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army.
“Just look at what our soldiers have done in just the last few months alone. We've asked our airborne and rapid reaction forces to deploy at a moment's notice to the Middle East, standing as an iron shield to protect American bases and American lives from Iranian proxies.”
The secretary also told West Point graduates that he’s working on getting the tools they need to fight the nation's wars.
"That means real acquisition reform, procurement reform, ending the culture of spending 10 years and $10 billion extra to build a system that's obsolete by the time it reaches your platoon," he said. "We're going to buy lethal, effective gear, and we're going to get it into your hands fast and then get you the right to repair, as your secretary talks about all the time."
He also told graduates that the Trump administration has been eliminating bureaucracy and red tape that has made it difficult for service members to do their jobs defending the nation, saying it is “taking a chainsaw to all of it,” while also touting the end of woke ideologies in the U.S. Armed Forces.