President Donald Trump’s administration has declared war on those who declared war on American citizens.
After all, among other things, the Trump administration values freedom, security, merit, and health. And those who declared war on American citizens did so in part by attacking all of those things.
Friday morning on the social media platform X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to an alarming new report about the incidence of obesity among National Guard and Reserve troops by calling the situation “completely unacceptable” and pledging a new military made up of “FIT, not FAT” service members.
“This is what happens when standards are IGNORED — and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here,” Hegseth wrote.
Completely unacceptable.
This is what happens when standards are IGNORED — and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here.
We will be FIT, not FAT. pic.twitter.com/KWMlFbS1c8
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) April 25, 2025
American Security Project research analyst Katherine Yusko authored the new study.
“As operational demands on the U.S. Armed Forces’ reserve component increase, rising rates of weight-related illnesses in the National Guard and reserves present a growing threat to manpower, mission readiness, and service member well-being,” Yusko wrote.
She added that problems stemming from obesity “hamper reserve component readiness to respond to threats both overseas and at home.”
Thus, getting “FIT, not FAT” qualifies as a national-security imperative.
Moreover, one could scarcely exaggerate the scope of the problem.
“In order to respond quickly, safely, and effectively to a wide array of threats both at home and abroad, the reserve component must ensure that its service members are fit and healthy,” Yusko wrote. “As of 2018, however, more than 65 percent of reserve personnel have either clinical overweight or obesity. If reserve component rates have tracked active component trends in recent years, as they have done in the past, this figure has now climbed to nearly 68 percent.”
In other words, regardless of the precise figure, approximately two-thirds of reservists do not qualify as fit.
Of course, a story of this kind calls to mind problems that go beyond the military. And the solutions to those problems require coordination across the Trump administration.
For instance, reservists qualify as overweight or obese because many Americans do. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to end that chronic health problem.
Likewise, a military consisting of unfit reservists reflects a broader assault on merit, exemplified by diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fit individuals, no matter how they look or what identity-related characteristics they might have, belong in positions requiring fitness. Unfit individuals, no matter how many identity-related boxes they check, do not belong in those positions. That is literally the entire conservative objection to DEI, and it is the driving force behind Trump’s war on that ugly, Marxist-inspired ideology.
Furthermore, what better way to make war on American citizens than to throw open the nation’s borders? Coupled with an unfit military, an open border makes a mockery of national security. Trump has made remarkable progress toward ending that crisis, too.
In short, the problem of fitness among military reservists exists in a much larger context. Thankfully, Trump and his most capable officials, including Hegseth, have already taken steps to reverse the damage done by those in former President Joe Biden’s administration and elsewhere who, out of disdain for the country and its people, made war on American citizens.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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