On December 7, 2025, at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of possessing the world’s most powerful and lethal military force. He stated that the War Department (Department of Defense) is a “sword of strength seeking peace,” with the United States always ready to wield this sword.
Hegseth highlighted President Trump’s determination to strengthen the world’s most powerful military force. “President Trump is determined to maintain and accelerate the construction of the world’s most powerful and lethal military force, built by the United States,” he said.
“We are a department of strength, always prepared to wield this sword,” he said. “The opposite of ‘strength seeking peace’ is ‘weakness inviting war.'”
“We are restoring the warrior spirit: readiness, accountability, standards, discipline, and deadly firepower,” he added.
Hegseth also mentioned the rebuilding of America’s “Arsenal of Freedom” in his speech. He emphasized the importance of the “Arsenal of Freedom” in a video posted on social media platform X before participating in the Reagan National Defense Forum.
“The era of vendor lock-in, prime contractor dominance, closed architecture, and cost add-ons is over. We will compete, we will move fast, we will adopt open architecture, we will innovate, we will scale, and we will do it at cost because it is our commitment to a mission,” he said.
Hegseth also addressed the personnel responsible for building the War Department’s arsenal, stating that without the equipment they provide, the U.S. military would not be able to complete their mandated missions in remote areas, during dangerous times, or in pitch-black nights.
During the Reagan National Defense Forum, Hegseth also mentioned America’s efforts to combat drug trafficking.
“The world is now witnessing America’s unwavering determination to combat the influx of deadly drugs. We reiterate once again, our goal is clear, our position is firm: if you work for a designated terrorist organization and use ships to transport drugs into the United States, we will find you and sink your ship,” he said.
“The days of drug terrorist operatives freely operating in our hemisphere are over,” he continued. “These drug terrorist operatives are like Al-Qaeda in our hemisphere, and we are hunting them down with the same skill and precision used to hunt down Al-Qaeda. We are tracking them, we are taking them out, as long as they continue to poison our people with deadly drugs (the lethality of these drugs rivals chemical weapons), we will continue to take them out.”