Pete Hegseth is casting troops who fit specific “physical standards” to support him at his upcoming “State of the Force” address later this month.
The embattled defense secretary, 46, is asking top military brass to nominate service members who exhibit “impeccable grooming and uniform standards” and conform to certain body fat requirements to attend his speech, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The service members selected must pass the Army’s fitness test and meet its waist-to-height ratio requirement, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper revealed, citing an email sent to Army commanders on Tuesday.
Candidates will be chosen by commanders based on “demonstrated leadership quality and professional character,” and must have a “clear record of integrity, discipline, and selfless service,” among other qualifications.
Troops selected to attend the speech will also have the chance to exercise alongside the self-styled “Secretary of War,” the Journal reported.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
The looks-obsessed Hegseth, who said during last year’s military-wide address that having “fat generals” was “unacceptable,” has made his standards quite clear throughout his tenure as defense secretary.
Under Hegseth, the Army made the waist-to-height ratio the branch’s official body composition screening method. It calculates a soldier’s waistline, measured at the belly button, in inches divided by their height, with 0.55 as the benchmark score.
Any soldier who fails the twice-yearly assessment by exceeding the benchmark is placed in the Army Body Composition Program.
Hegseth has also been vocal about his disdain for “beardos,” as he considers remaining clean-shaven essential to his so-called “warrior ethos.”
“We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans,” he told several hundred senior military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico last September. “No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression.”
The former Fox & Friends Weekend host threw a fit in June when he saw some of the sailors aboard a Navy ship weren’t adhering to his strict grooming guidelines, which resulted in the acting Navy secretary sending a memo in August stressing even more rigorous enforcement.
While Hegseth’s address last year at Quantico was limited only to top U.S. generals and admirals, this year’s audience will include lower-ranking officials and service members, too.
Last year’s unprecedented gathering served as an outlet for Hegseth to outline his anti-“woke” agenda and lay out his priorities as President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief.
“The military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things,” he said. “In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay; some of it obvious, some of it hidden.”
