Defense Dept. Sinks Dem's Claim That Hegseth De-Woking the Military Is Worsening 'Recruitment Crisis'

Doug P. | 1:22 PM on April 23, 2025

The Democrat and media (as always, pardon the redundancy) hits on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have failed to deliver the result they're after, so some are taking other approaches.

In this case, Dem Sen. Tammy Duckworth is arguing that what Hegseth is doing will worsen the recruitment crisis that just coincidentally seemed to start early in the previous administration. Hegseth's fixing that:

Your agenda is illegals, trans & DEI — all of which are no longer allowed @ DoD.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) April 21, 2025

Duckworth says that's unconsitutional and will make recruitment more difficult:

We’re already facing a military recruitment crisis—⁰ ⁰And Trump wants to turn away eligible Americans who are willing to serve and can do the job.⁰ ⁰Trump’s unconstitutional trans military service ban must end. https://t.co/ytbpvSNPvJ
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) April 22, 2025

Is that so?

The DOD Rapid Response account responded with how recruitment is going these days:

Fixed it. https://t.co/QrAAm4E9XO pic.twitter.com/owQDZQZymZ
— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) April 23, 2025

That includes "enormous gains" for Army recruiting:

The Army is poised to easily hit its recruiting target this year as the service has made enormous gains in filling the ranks ahead of its traditional summer rush of new enlistments.
As of last week, the Army had enlisted 51,837 recruits, or 85% of its 61,000 target for fiscal 2025, according service data provided to Military.com. A significant portion of that total -- roughly 14,000 -- comes from the service's delayed-entry program, or DEP, which is composed of recruits who signed up last year but are only now shipping out to basic training. The Army has the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, to hit its recruiting quota.