President Trump’s secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, had a blunt message for the hundreds of American military officials he hauled into an in-person meeting Tuesday morning — the era of “woke” culture and out-of-shape troops in the Armed Forces is over. 

The secretary laid out his new plan to bring the military “back to basics” in a speech that resembled a TED talk as he moved around the stage laying out his new vision for the Department of War. His marching orders include scrapping gender-specific fitness standards in favor of “male-level” benchmarks along with a merit-based system across the department.

“We’ve pretended that combat arms and non-combat arms are the same thing,” Mr. Hegseth said. “We’ve weeded out so-called toxic leaders under the guise of double-blind psychology assessments, promoting risk-averse, go-along-to-get-along conformists instead. You name it, the department did it.”

“Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way,” he added. “We became the woke department. But not anymore.”

He said the new physical standards will be required of nearly every single member of the military and will include physical therapy tests twice a year for every year of service.

“The new war department golden rule is this,” he said, “do unto your unit as you would have done to your own child’s unit. Would you want him serving with fat or unfit or undertrained troops? Or alongside people where standards were lowered?

“The answer is not just no, it’s hell no,” he said.

Mr. Hegseth also took issue with the lack of grooming standards, environmental policies, and transgender troops, saying that the focus of the Armed Forces needs to be placed back on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”

“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said.

“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he added. “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”

Mr. Trump followed Mr. Hegseth’s pep talk with a rambling hour-long harangue about everything from his predecessor, President Biden, to the looming shutdown of the federal government to the current standards for the Armed Forces. 

“We must be so strong that no nation will dare challenge us, so powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us,” Mr. Trump said. “And so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us.”

He also suggested at one point that “dangerous cities” in America should be used as “training grounds” for the troops.

His remarks left some in the subdued crowd restless as the president railed against Mr. Biden, and the media. 

One man in a naval uniform was seen rolling his head and looking restless as the speech continued and many officers looked expressionless and silent during his attacks on the former president.