In a inflammatory campaign appearance at the Iowa State Fair, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparked widespread outrage by using a transphobic slur while discussing the military’s priorities and ongoing efforts to purge transgender service members from the armed forces.
Speaking on Monday at JR’s SouthPork Ranch during a campaign stop for U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), Hegseth targeted gender identity initiatives while emphasizing his agenda for the Pentagon, an institution he repeatedly referred to as the “Department of War.”
“At the Department of War, we do training, not trannies,” Hegseth says, to cheers from the crowd, according to local reporting from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
In the same speech, Hegseth paradoxically argued that the military must operate completely without regard to individual demographic differences, claiming that his primary focus remains solely on operational effectiveness.
“Training, lethality, accountability, discipline, readiness—the bedrock of what it means to be an American warrior—is the only focus of our department,” Hegseth says. “Colorblind, gender-neutral, merit-based. That’s it.”
When reached for comment regarding the Defense Secretary’s explicit use of a derogatory slur, the Pentagon offered no apology or pushback, maintaining a brief and uncompromising stance: “We have nothing further to add beyond the secretary’s remarks.”
The controversial rhetoric highlights the Trump-Vance administration’s systematic efforts to exclude transgender personnel from military service. Since taking office, the administration has implemented aggressive restrictions prohibiting transgender individuals from enlisting and seeking to discharge active-duty service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Hegseth’s directive issued earlier in his tenure instructed senior leadership that “all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused.” The policy went on to dehumanize transgender personnel, declaring that gender diversity is “incompatible with active duty” and arguing that a transgender person’s identity represents a “falsehood” that conflicts with military cohesion.
Civil rights groups and LGBTQ+ advocates immediately condemned Hegseth’s remarks at the fairgrounds. The speech comes amid an ongoing high-stakes legal battle, where organizations like Lambda Legal, GLAD Law, and the Human Rights Campaign have sued the federal government over the military ban. Plaintiffs point out that discharging thousands of experienced, qualified personnel harms national security, with advocacy attorneys emphasizing in court filings that “a policy that identifies a group of people and calls them dishonest, lacking integrity, and lacking a warrior spirit—in spite of all the evidence—is motivated by animus.”
Despite Hegseth’s framing of his policies as “gender-neutral,” courts have continued to scrutinize the administration’s actions. Federal judges have noted key contradictions in the Pentagon’s medical rules, including policies that severely restrict gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender service members while simultaneously encouraging cisgender troops to seek hormone replacement therapy for low testosterone. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit previously issued an injunction halting the discharge of active-duty transgender service members while full constitutional challenges proceed.
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