Pete Hegseth Has a New Military Priority. It Is Not the War. It Is Hormones.
The United States is at war with Iran. The naval blockade of Iranian ports was reimposed this week. Airstrikes are in their fourth consecutive night. The president has threatened to destroy Iran’s power grid. The question of ground troops has not been ruled out.
Pete Hegseth’s priority this week is testosterone.
The Pentagon will begin annually testing service members 30 and over for testosterone deficiencies, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. Service members 30 and over will test annually and can choose to receive testosterone replacement therapy if they are recommended for treatment. “We owe our warriors the absolute best medical care in the world, and this program delivers on that obligation,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
Hegesth said in the video, posted under a caption reading “The High-T Department of War,” that maintaining proper testosterone levels was a way to keep troops on the “leading edge of lethality.”
The High-T Department of War. He posted that caption himself. He is proud of it. This is the Secretary of Defense of the United States, posting “The High-T Department of War” on social media while the country is at war, while ICE is killing people in Maine and Houston, while 260 FBI agents are searching Georgia for a stolen election, while the civilian harm protection program he gutted left a school in Iran unprotected from a Tomahawk missile.
The High-T Department of War.
What the Science Actually Says
A very small percentage of men have a medical condition called Testosterone Deficiency. However, doctors are concerned that the online popularity of “low-T” as a medical problem creates a false impression that this is a bigger problem than it really is. Some 2% of men may have it, according to the American Urological Association.
Two percent. Two percent of men have a medical condition called testosterone deficiency. The Pentagon is now mandating annual screening for this condition — which affects 2% of men — for all service members over 30, while simultaneously cutting military healthcare, purging generals, imposing fitness standards that have driven out experienced personnel, and gutting the CHMR civilian protection program that might have prevented the death of children in an Iranian school.
Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have advocated for wider availability of testosterone therapy for men. Hegseth’s post referred to “High-T,” a social media fad pushed by influencers that encourages men to seek higher levels of testosterone to maintain their strength and masculinity. Discussions around masculinity have seeped into culture wars and national politics.
A social media fad pushed by influencers. The Secretary of Defense — the former Fox News host who renamed his department the Department of War, who said he didn’t want “fat generals,” who required everyone to meet a “male standard” — is implementing a social media wellness trend as official Pentagon policy.
RFK Jr. advocates for it. Pete Hegseth mandates it. The influencer pipeline from supplement culture to federal defense policy is now complete.
Here is what Pete Hegseth has prioritized as Secretary of Defense since January 2025: purging DEI. Firing inspectors general. Gutting civilian harm protections. Requiring everyone to meet a male fitness standard. Announcing he doesn’t want fat generals. Dismantling the CHMR program that protected civilians from American airstrikes. Firing experienced officers. Creating a joint DOJ-Pentagon task force to prosecute press leaks. And now, mandatory testosterone screening for troops over 30.
Here is what has happened while he did those things: A school in Iran was struck. Witnesses to ICE shootings are being deported. The United States is at war with Iran with no defined end state. The Pentagon has no functioning civilian harm assessment capability. Two Americans died at the hands of ICE agents in two weeks.
The finest military in human history. The most sophisticated warfighting apparatus ever assembled. The institution that stormed Normandy, won the Cold War, and has protected American interests for eighty years.
Pete Hegseth is checking their hormone levels.
“We owe our warriors the absolute best medical care in the world,” he said, “and this program delivers on that obligation.”
The school in Minab was in the targeting system. The target was added anyway. The CHMR program that might have caught it was defunded eight months before the war started.
But the testosterone levels are being monitored.
The High-T Department of War is on it.