Key Points and Summary: The U.S. military’s recruiting crisis has been widely debated, with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claiming that “wokeness” hurt enlistment.
-However, reports indicate the issue is more complex. While the Army recently hit a 15-year recruiting high, the turnaround began before Trump’s return.
-Experts cite declining fitness levels, lower interest in military service, and demographic challenges as bigger factors.
While D.E.I. initiatives have sparked controversy, Pentagon officials say they have little impact on recruitment. With concerns about military readiness, the debate continues: Is the U.S. truly rebuilding its forces, or are deeper challenges still unresolved?
Is the U.S. Military’s Recruiting Crisis Over? The Truth Behind the Numbers
For many years, the United States military has been having difficulty meeting its recruiting goals, and in the early days of the Trump Administration, the president, defense secretary and others, have been doing a victory lap over what they call improved numbers.
Donald Trump and other Republicans have frequently cited “wokeness,” “DEI,” and other buzzwords for those struggles, although the truth is a bit more complicated than that.
The U.S. Army said on social media this week that they had their most productive December in 15 years, when it came to recruiting. Newsweek reported last month that the Army was poised to reach its enlistment targets for 2025.
“WE’RE SO BACK,” the White House X account posted on February 5. “The [US Army] has achieved its highest recruiting numbers in 15 years, following a 12-year high in December. Under President Trump’s America First leadership, Americans are answering the call to serve,” the post said, over a picture of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shaking hands with a soldier.
However, the Army hit its target for the fiscal year that ended last September, so it’s not entirely about the return of Trump. Task and Purpose reported this week that the surge began due to changes in recruitment efforts last year before the election.
Dexter Filkins, a respected reporter who has done acclaimed work in the past as a war correspondent, wrote for The New Yorker this week about “The U.S. Military’s Recruiting Crisis.”
Meet the Future Soldiers
Filkins’ piece begins at a Future Soldiers training course at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. There, “hundreds of overweight young men and women” are depicted having difficulty getting through a training course. That program started in 2022 “to help marginal but willing recruits find their way into the military.”
Per the piece, the Army missed its recruitment goals by nearly 25 percent in both 2022 and 2023, and only met its goal in 2024 by reducing its target. The military now has 1.3 million active-duty soldiers, compared to 12 million at the end of World War II. This has led to concerns that the U.S. doesn’t have a large enough military to fight wars.
What Are the Causes?
As pointed out in the New Yorker article, Trump and Hegseth have blamed the recruiting shortfall on diversity programs that have “chased away potential recruits.” Hegseth even wrote a book called “The War on Warriors,” making similar charges.
Experts quoted by Filkins doubt it’s that simple but do have an explanation for the recruiting shortfalls that some conservatives might be receptive to: The problem is kids these days.
It cited one Pentagon study showing that three-quarters of potential recruits between 17 and 24 are not eligible, because they are “overweight, unable to pass the aptitude test, afflicted by physical or mental health issues, or disqualified by such factors as a criminal record.”
There are other factors as well, from comparatively low unemployment in recent years to a generation having less interest in military service after growing up watching endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Filkins himself wrote a book about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars called “The Forever War.”
D.E.I. in the U.S. Military
The conclusion of the reporting seems to be that some in the military aren’t fans of D.E.I. initiatives but that it’s not an overarching, one-size-fits-all reason for low morale.
191009-N-WB795-1126 GREAT LAKES, Ill. (Oct. 9, 2019) Electronics Technician 1st Class Troy Kruyer performs the push-ups portion of the physical readiness test inside Pacific Fleet Drill Hall at Recruit Training Command. More than 35,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Brandie Nix/Released)
The New Yorker piece notes that then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper “ordered a stepped-up effort to combat racism” in 2020 but was overruled by Trump. The Biden Administration stepped up such efforts while also pushing a “department-wide effort to address extremism in the military” after several people with military backgrounds were involved in the January 6 attack.
Most of the D.E.I. efforts, however, “required little commitment,” the piece said. There were also controversies about vaccine mandates during the Biden presidency, although Filkins reported that military officials “disputed the idea that these initiatives hurt recruiting.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter
