On Tuesday, my friend and colleague, Susie Moore, reported that Pete Hegseth gave a fiery monologue during testimony before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. 

Shocking: Hegseth Reveals New Military Recruits Aren't Hung Up on Pronouns

It was during this that he dropped an interesting fact about the number of people gravitating toward the military, and it spoke a lot about Gen Z and the will of young Americans: 

What changed is a commander-in-chief that America's young people believe in. President Trump was elected in November, inaugurated in January, and at first, I called it the 'Trump bump.' But then it became clear that's not enough. 

This is a tsunami of support amongst young Americans who want to serve under a president who they know has their back, who will fund them properly, who will not use them unnecessarily, and will make sure they are part of deterrence for the country with a focus, first and foremost, on the homeland, then deterring strength and making sure our allies step up and carry more of the burden. 

So, you've got a historic surge in the Army, the Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, you name it — Americans are responding because...the president says 'a new spirit.' And he's right, and you can feel it in the ranks — you go out to formations, you talk to men and women on the border, they believe in what they're doing in securing that Southern Border. You talk to them across the world, they are enthused about this new administration and its leadership.

I think it's important to understand the real message behind the message here. Hegseth is saying that Trump is the big change that was needed to restore faith in the military. He's not wrong, but I think there's an important part of the story missing from this that needs to be highlighted. 

Trump didn't arrive back at the White House out of nowhere. The American people wanted this to happen because he represented something that we felt the country was missing... or rather, many things. 

Integrity, competency, common sense, realism, and patriotism. 

The Democrat Party had us mired in the polar opposite of these qualities, and when Trump returned, we began seeing a turnaround, including in the military. 

That was step one. 

The magic started happening once faith was restored in the system, thanks to a competent and good leader, and we began seeing the emergence of young people who wanted to be a part of something more important than themselves. Something that actually mattered, and what's more, treated them like they mattered. Something that believed in them back. 

Respect was restored to the military after it had become a staging ground for social experimentation and Democrat PR opportunities. DEI was optics, not honor, and efficacy and deadliness were replaced with "diversity and inclusion," something that feigns care and value for people but ultimately treats everyone under it like tools to be used and for the benefit of only one group, and you're not in that group. 

A military based in DEI is not a military prepared for war. 

The left tries to make this about pronouns and inclusivity. When bullets start flying and life and death situations arise, the last thing any soldier is going to care about is making sure everyone's pronouns are established and respected. Diversity isn't going to protect you from enemies who want nothing more than to see you bleeding out on the ground. 

Moreover, it's a sad kind of military to be in when identity is respected over merit. I wouldn't want to be led into battle when my leaders weren't chosen because they're good leaders, but because putting them in a news report makes the Democrats look better. 

This is well understood by many of our fighting-age men and women, many of them in the Gen-Z bracket. It tells me that the reports that our youth are going to be an issue for this country going forward have been wildly exaggerated, and the left wildly overestimated its impact on them.