QUANTICO, Va. — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that “Black and female recruitment are up, even though all the quotas are gone,” and that today’s military is “color-blind, gender-neutral, merit-based.”
C-SPAN posted the segment on X at 4:23 a.m. Eastern on Oct. 1, from the Sept. 30 address at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The as-delivered text is on the Department of War site. He did not cite a table, a fiscal year, or a percentage.
In today’s War Department, military sexual assaults are down. In today’s War Department, military suicides are down. In today’s War Department, Black and female recruitment are up, even though all the quotas are gone.
He called the three lines “headlines that they could run that they just haven’t gotten to,” then said, “Quite an inconvenient truth that doesn’t quite fit their narrative, does it?” He said the force is “healthier than ever” and that “everyone of all shades loves that.” The audience was active-duty E-6s and O-3s.
The monthly accession release does not break out race or sex. A release through June 2026 says the active components were ahead of year-to-date goals: Army 46,147 against 44,400, Navy 32,549 against 32,314, Marine Corps 16,639 against 16,472, Air Force 24,359 against 24,356, and Space Force 625 against 605. A December 2025 department story said every active service made its fiscal 2025 mission.
Two department pages do publish a sex or race split, and neither is the table Hegseth cited. Army Recruiting Command’s facts page lists fiscal 2025 Regular Army accessions as 19.7 percent female and 26.6 percent African American, against 80.3 percent male. An Aug. 15, 2025, department story said nearly 24,000 of more than 115,000 recruits shipped to basic training that fiscal year were women, compared with about 16,700 women at the same point a year earlier. Those are Army or mid-year figures. They are not a joint-force Black and female total for the date of the speech.
The “quotas are gone” line tracks a January 2025 order and a Hegseth memorandum. President Trump’s executive order “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” prohibits preference or disadvantage in the armed forces on the basis of sex, race, or ethnicity. A department account of Hegseth’s task-force memo says the department will eliminate sex, race, or ethnicity-based goals for organizational composition, academic admission, and career fields, and will not use those factors in promotion, command, or special duty.
On sexual assault, the department has a published count. The fiscal 2025 fact sheet, required by section 1631 of the fiscal 2011 defense authorization act, says the department received 7,998 reports involving service members as victims or alleged offenders, down from 8,195 in fiscal 2024. Of the 2025 reports, 5,022 were unrestricted and 2,976 remained restricted. Estimated unwanted-sexual-contact prevalence fell from the fiscal 2023 survey to the fiscal 2025 survey, from 6.8 percent to 4.3 percent for active-duty women and from 1.3 percent to 1.0 percent for active-duty men.
On suicide, the latest full-year release is calendar 2024. A March 31, 2026, department release says 471 service members died by suicide in calendar 2024, compared with 531 in calendar 2023. The total-force rate fell about 11 percent. The active-component rate fell about 16 percent. The National Guard rate rose about 13 percent. The release says the active-component rate has risen since 2011. Hegseth did not cite a year.
The rest of the clip turned to the press. Hegseth said “anti-American losers in our media” had not credited operations against Iran, and that “a free press is, of course, important, but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops” is “a national betrayal. It’s treason, actually.” He named no outlet and no statute. Article III of the Constitution defines treason as levying war against the United States or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Section 2381 of Title 18 is the criminal statute. The speech does not charge a case.
He also said reporting had revealed “movements and bases,” leaked “classified capabilities,” and lied about “munition stockpiles.” Those are his descriptions. The address did not identify a story, a document, or a leak investigation.
The same speech announced six initiatives, listed in a department release: an Autonomous Warfare Command, America’s Corps of Cadets, FORTRESS America, the Next Great American Base, an Office of Religious Affairs, and Project Meridian. The recruitment lines are not among those six. They are a claim in the address. The published sex and race figures are Army or mid-year 2025 counts, not a joint table attached to the speech.