Trump: Military Will Protect Nation With Focus on Merit, Reawakened Warrior Spirit

The U.S. military, said President Donald J. Trump, is strong again, with a focus on merit and a warrior spirit.

This morning at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, hundreds of general and flag officers from around the War Department sat shoulder to shoulder in an auditorium to listen to two of the very few collection of people who still outrank them: the secretary of war and the president of the United States.

Trump spoke after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth discussed 10 new directives meant to strengthen the military, including a laser focus on standards.

The United States, Trump said, was built on merit, but the focus later shifted.

"We got away from it for a long time," the president said. But now merit is back - within the federal government and within the War Department.

"We're going to be greater than we ever were before," Trump told the generals. "We're bringing back a focus on fitness, ability, character and strength - and that's because the purpose of [the] American military is not to protect anyone's feelings - it's to protect our republic. And it's the republic that we dearly love. It's to protect our country. We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom, and we will be a fighting and winning machine."

A stronger, more lethal military, Trump said, comes not just from inside the armed forces with training and adherence to standards. It also requires the support of the civilian leadership above it.

"Together, we're reawakening the warrior spirit, and this is a spirit that won and built this nation: from the cavalry that tamed the Great Plains to the ferocious, unyielding power of [Army Gen. George] Patton, [Army Gen. Omar] Bradley and the great [Army] Gen. Douglas MacArthur," Trump said. "In this effort, we're a team. And so, my message to you is very simple: I am with you, I support you, and as president, I have your backs 100%. You'll never see me even waver a little bit."

"Together over the next few years, we're going to make our military stronger, tougher, faster, fiercer and more powerful than it has ever been before," he continued.

A stronger military doesn't just mean stronger troops, who are trained and who follow standards, Trump said. It also means having a military that has the best equipment with which to carry out both offensive and defensive operations, including an improved nuclear deterrent, better aircraft and more surface warfare ships and submarines.

"We're investing tens of billions of dollars in modernizing our nuclear deterrence capabilities like never before," the president said. "And we've begun construction on what we call the 'Golden Dome' missile defense shield. It'll be the most sophisticated in the world."

For the Navy, he said, more ships are on the way.

"Under my budget, we will be expanding the U.S. Navy by at least 19 ships next year, including submarines, destroyers, assault ships and more," Trump told the officers.

"History has shown that military supremacy has never been simply a matter of money or manpower. At the end of the day, it is the culture, the spirit of our military that truly sets us apart from any other nation," he said. "Our ultimate strength will always come from the fierce people, those brilliant people with such pride and the unbending will and the traditions of excellence that have made us the most unstoppable force ever to walk the face of the earth, and that's what we are."

It was just over three weeks ago that the Defense Department became the War Department, a name change that the president said is more than cosmetic. Instead, he said, the return to an older name harkens back to a time when he thought the department did a lot more of the thing it should be best at: winning wars.

"We won the first world war; we won the second world war - we won everything in between and everything before that. We only won," Trump said.

Now the department name from that era is back.

"In the coming months, we'll be making even more historic announcements to fully embrace the identity of the Department of War," Trump said. "I love the name. I think it's so great. I think it stops wars. The Department of War is going to stop wars."