On October 1, 2025, the U.S. military became the latest battleground in America’s ongoing culture wars, as podcast host Joe Rogan threw his considerable influence behind Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s sweeping new reforms. Rogan, never one to mince words, used his popular show "The Joe Rogan Experience" to champion Hegseth’s promise to strip the armed forces of what both men derided as “woke garbage” and “identity politics,” in favor of a leaner, meaner, and—above all—more physically capable military.
Hegseth’s speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, delivered to an audience of about 800 generals and admirals, marked a dramatic shift in tone and policy from the previous four years under President Joe Biden’s administration. Hegseth announced that all service members, regardless of rank, would now be required to pass two fitness tests per year and meet the highest combat standards—standards previously reserved solely for men. "The era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don't-hurt-anyone's-feelings leadership ends right now," Hegseth declared, according to reporting from Newsmax.
He didn’t stop there. Hegseth openly criticized what he saw as the softening of the military under Biden, vowing to eliminate so-called “woke garbage” and return the armed forces to a focus on readiness and physical prowess. "It's tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops," he told the assembled leaders. "Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad, and it's not who we are."
These remarks, and the policies they heralded, found an enthusiastic supporter in Joe Rogan. On his podcast, Rogan echoed Hegseth’s sentiments, arguing that the Trump administration had prioritized military strength, while the Biden administration had focused on "identity politics." Rogan’s colorful commentary left little doubt about his position: “No more identity politics and bullshit. The most important thing is be ready. Be ready, have the best, most capable military that’s humanly possible given the resources that we have today. This is where our goal is. This is where our job is,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Rogan’s criticism of the Biden era was pointed and personal. "You saw what the fuck was going on over the last four years," he told his audience. "You got guys in dresses talking about how it’s really important to have inclusiveness. ‘It’s the most important thing about the military is inclusivity.’”
He singled out Sam Brinton, the former Department of Energy official who was the first openly gender-fluid person to serve in the U.S. government. Brinton was fired in 2022 after being caught multiple times on surveillance footage stealing women’s luggage at airports. Rogan didn’t hold back: “We had crazy people that were in charge of very important positions, including that guy that was stealing women’s clothes. That guy was in charge of like fucking nuclear waste and he’s running around stealing people’s underwear. With lipstick and a bald head.” According to Mediaite and other outlets, Rogan continued, “Not just stealing, but he stole this one lady who was like a famous designer. It was a one-off dress … He wore it to some event and the lady was like, ‘Hey, motherfucker, that’s mine. Like, someone stole that shit from the airport.’ And that’s how he got busted.”
Hegseth’s reforms, and Rogan’s defense of them, come on the heels of a year-long study by the Arizona State University Center for American Institutions, published in June 2024. The study found that the U.S. military and Pentagon under Biden had become a "vast DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] bureaucracy," a transformation that critics argue has come at the expense of combat readiness. Rogan, reflecting this sentiment, said, “The most important thing is be ready. No more fucking politics, no more identity politics and bullshit.”
Hegseth’s plan for the military is clear: all troops and generals must now submit to physical fitness tests and meet strict weight and height requirements twice a year. Combat troops, he said, would be held to the "highest male standard only." The Secretary expressed his frustration with what he called a "bad look" for the military. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth stated. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.”
The reaction to Hegseth’s remarks was swift and, perhaps predictably, split along political lines. Republicans lauded his call for reform, seeing it as a necessary corrective to what they view as years of misplaced priorities. Democrats, on the other hand, were quick to criticize the rhetoric and the event itself. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the gathering "an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership." In his view, "While American forces confront real threats across the globe, Mr. Hegseth and President Trump chose to pull generals and admirals away from their missions to listen to hours of political grievances."
Rogan, for his part, continued to hammer home his central theme throughout his podcast: the need for a military laser-focused on readiness and capability, unencumbered by what he sees as divisive social agendas. He even took time to criticize the left for its reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk, lamenting, “I don't think some of the things he said he should have said, but the fact that people were cheering when he died — normal people, housewives, moms, like fucking people working at banks, people working at various industries — celebrating a man getting shot in front of his kids in the front of the whole world. Like what the fuck is wrong with us?”
As the dust settles from Hegseth’s Quantico address and Rogan’s viral podcast, the debate over the military’s direction is far from over. For supporters, the new policies are a long-overdue return to basics; for critics, they represent a dangerous step backward. But one thing’s certain: the conversation about what kind of military America needs—and what values it should embody—shows no sign of quieting down.
