Hegseth: ‘War Dept. Will Not Be Distracted By Regime Change’

SIMI VALLEY, CALIF. — The era of “feckless nation building” is over, War Secretary Pete Hegseth told a room full of legislators, military personnel, and defense industry executives, as he delivered the keynote address at the Reagan National Defense Forum Saturday.

“The War Department will not be distracted by Democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing, and feckless nation-building,” he said, speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “We will deter war. We will advance our interests. We will defend our people. Peace is our goal, and in service of that objective, we will always be ready to fight and win decisively when called upon.”

“As part of this mission, we are asking American taxpayers to fund the world’s greatest military. We’re asking mothers and fathers across America to trust us with their most precious resource, their sons and daughters, and we will honor their trust and their sacrifice,” he added. “We’ve been able to restore America’s greatness after years of suffering under the so-called bipartisan consensus, which is really just a euphemism for disastrous foreign policy.”

He explained that, since the end of the Cold War, an entire generation of warmongers has used Reagan’s name to justify endless foreign intervention while destroying America’s domestic industrial base and economy.

“This generation of self-proclaimed neo-Reaganites abandoned Reagan’s actual wise policies in favor of unchecked neo-conservatism and economic globalism. In economics, they dismantled our industrial base, shipping it overseas,” he said. “At the same time, in diplomacy and defense, they swore off the … flexible realism of Reagan, Nixon, and Eisenhower. Instead, they set about trying to make America the policeman, the protector, the arbiter of the whole world — ‘democracy for all,’ they said, even in the Pech River Valley, even when people don’t want it. They turned American allies into dependents, all but encouraging these nations across Europe and around the world to free-ride while we subsidize their defense with U.S. taxpayer dollars.”

The speech focused on comparisons to Reagan and his notion of “peace through strength,” the same phrase the Trump administration uses to summarize their defense posture. This Reagan comparison, however, took to task the neocon warmongers, or “Republican hawks,” as Hegseth put it. He also criticized the military-industrial complex comprised of revolving doors between government positions and defense lobbyists that has for decades encouraged foreign conflict and made money by expending America’s blood and treasure.

Hegseth outlined a plan to build up America’s defenses so other countries perceive them as insurmountable and forego war. He also laid out a shift that means the historically top defense manufacturers — referred to as “primes” — would not necessarily be a shoe-in for military contracts anymore.

If that actually goes into effect, it would be a major change in Washington. Military leadership has become so corrupted by entanglements with large defense companies that military contracts end up costing American taxpayers exorbitant amounts more than the initial price and are often late and therefore close to obsolete by the time any contracted systems actually become functional.

Hegseth’s Biden-appointed predecessor, former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, ascended to that position from the board of Raytheon, which netted massive military contracts on Austin’s watch. Hegseth made a not-so-subtle jab at the Reagan National Defense Forum for awarding Austin, who went AWOL while heading the Pentagon, the “Peace Through Strength Award” last year.

During some of Hegseth’s more overt reprimands of “prime” military contractors, some of the attendees might have jeered if the event tone were not so cordial.

“The bottom line is a historic, generational, and transformational change that we will implement and will move us from the current prime-contractor-dominated system — defined by limited competition, vendor lock, cost-plus contracts, stress budgets, and frustrating protests — to a future powered by dynamic vendor space that accelerates production by combining investment at a commercial pace with uniquely American ability to scale and scale quickly, all at the speed of urgency,” he said.

Hegseth said the large military contractors will now be treated equally to smaller or medium-sized firms, and whoever has the best product will be awarded contracts. The first day of Hegseth’s trip to California was spent reviewing some of the smaller companies innovating in defense tech.

At the end of the speech, the applause somewhat lacked enthusiasm, but that seemed like the point Hegseth was trying to make. After all, the Reagan National Defense Forum is a key annual event where defense industry executives, policymakers, government officials, and elected representatives go to discuss national defense and security priorities.

The military-industrial complex sponsors the event. The Reagan Institute, which runs the forum, published polling in the days preceding that claimed the American people want more foreign military intervention, not less.

“President Trump is dedicated both sides of the ‘peace through strength’ coin, not just using that phrase as a thin veil for warmongering,” Hegseth said.

A War Department official confirmed to The Federalist that the speech was a preview of the department’s forthcoming National Defense Strategy. That strategy likely seeks dramatically increased national defense spending to build an “American-made arsenal of freedom,” Hegseth said. Currently, many key U.S. military components are made abroad, even by adversaries such as China.

National defense spending is approximately 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or around $1 trillion, but Hegseth said 5 percent, or approximately $1.8 trillion, might be in the future.

“I think that number is going up,” he said during an interview after his remarks. “I don’t want to get in front of the president, his desire to properly shape what funding should look like. But just read the tea leaves. He’s watching it. He understands the threat better than anybody.”

Increasing spending on an infamously bureaucratic and financially corrupt military might make some, particularly on the populist right, nervous about the prospect of more forever wars, particularly with increased tensions and a potential regime change in Venezuela, plus the propensity for industry lobbyists to push the United States into wasteful armed conflicts. The Trump administration only has three more years, but the vast majority of tenured bureaucrats in the Pentagon who bungled American wars for decades will continue to influence any spending increases years after Trump leaves office unless the administration also manages to clean house.

Hegseth maintained the Trump administration’s approach is fundamentally different than past presidents on this issue. This build-up aims to deter conflict, not provoke it. He used the Iran nuclear facility strike as an example of swift, decisive action that did not pull the U.S. into another protracted war.

Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., told The Federalist in an interview at the event that the defense industry coaxing America into forever wars does not happen, and that there is not an insidious connection between that industry and profiting from death and destruction.

“They’re a business. We’re a capitalist society. It’s okay to make your case, but the best ideas should win,” he said. “You have to believe that we are good people. You know, we are good. Our country’s a great country. We’ve lifted more people out of poverty, given more people opportunity and freedom than any other country in the world. But historically, when our military is weak, that’s when you have war.”

He also said Congress is looking to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) before Christmas. That will include a provision called the Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery (SPEED) Act, which would level the playing field among “primes” and smaller companies.

Hegseth outlined four primary objectives for the National Defense Strategy, including U.S. homeland security such as border control and a Golden Dome, as well as the “Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” where the United States retakes dominance in the Western Hemisphere, prioritizing it above other parts of the world.

Another pillar is deterring China, “not dominating China, but rather ensuring they do not have the ability to dominate us or our allies.” Hegseth said the effort is based on “flexible realism” and a “balance of power that will enable all of us, all countries, to enjoy a decent peace in the Indo-Pacific, where trade flows openly and fairly, where we can all prosper and all interests are respected.”

“We will be strong, but not unnecessarily confrontational,” he said. “We’re not trying to strangle Chinese growth, we’re not trying to dominate or humiliate them, nor are we trying to change the status quo over Taiwan. Our interests in the Indo-Pacific are significant, but also scoped and reasonable. This includes the ability for us, along with allies, to be postured strongly enough in the Indo Pacific to balance China’s [] power.”

The third pillar emphasizes defense burden-sharing with U.S. allies, requiring that those countries do more to defend themselves, as opposed to relying on U.S. blood and treasure, as has been the norm for decades.

“This neo-Reaganite attitude led us to fritter away our soldiers’ lives, our national resources, and our citizens support,” Hegseth said. “We will no longer tolerate freeriding.”

Some American allies have historically had the most powerful militaries in the world. The Trump administration is pushing them to once again build up their defense-industrial base and field capable militaries, ensuring that a multi-front world war is possible to win, should it happen.

“This will form a powerful shared defensive shield with well-armed allies around the world ready to defend themselves, their interest in our collective interest — real partnerships and alliances based on hard power, not just flags and fancy conferences based on theories and hot rhetoric,” Hegseth said. “Our allies are not children. They are nations capable of doing far more for themselves.”

Hegseth said if allies fail to fund their own defense, they will face consequences.

Finally, the defense strategy will include a total overhaul of the defense-industrial complex — not just reining in “primes,” but making America’s weapons systems in America. One of the stops on Hegseth’s tour was to a company called Hadrian, which fabricates parts for satellites, weapons, vehicles, and many other systems in U.S. factories that hire American workers, often with no experience.

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.