RNDF 2025 — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took center stage in Simi Valley, Calif., today reasserting the military’s role in the Western Hemisphere and standing behind the recently released National Security Strategy solidifying the pivot.
“The War Department will not be distracted by democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing and feckless nation building,” Hegseth told an audience of lawmakers, military officials and industry gathered for the annual Reagan National Defense Forum.
“We will instead put our nation’s practical, concrete interests first,” he added. “We will deter war. We will advance our interests. We will defend our people. Peace is our goal.”
Hegseth was expected to use his keynote this weekend, in part, to preview the National Defense Strategy — a Department of Defense blueprint outlining how the military will support the National Security Strategy (NSS). While he did not address the status of the NDS, he did touch on the military implication of the NSS which was released Thursday evening and outlined four broad lines of effort for the military: defense of the homeland and the hemisphere; deterring China; increasing burden sharing with allies and partners; and “supercharging” the US Defense industrial base.
When it comes to the Western Hemisphere, the NSS homes in on a re-envisioned Monroe Doctrine — an 1823 US policy essentially telling European powers to stay out of the region.
“After years of neglect, the United States will restore US military dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” Hegseth told the audience, quoting the strategy. “We will use it to protect our homeland and access to key terrain throughout the region, we will also deny adversaries ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities in our hemisphere.
“Past administrations perpetuated the belief that the Monroe Doctrine had expired,” he added. “They were wrong. The Monroe Doctrine is in effect, and it is stronger than ever.”
What that means for the long-term US force posture in the region, though, is not yet clear. For his part, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine later said he is still studying the NSS but said he suspects it could mean moving more “combat power” in the region.
A focus on the Americas comes after years and different administrations touting a strategic pivot to focus on the Indo-Pacific region, in part, to counter China’s growing military. While the NSS seemingly rolls that back, it does say the US wants to build up a military capable of “denying aggression” within the First Island Chain, calls on regional partners to do more for a collective defense, while also noting that deterring a conflict over Taiwan remains a “priority.”
When it comes to China, Hegseth said the goal is to create a space for stable peace, fair trade and respectful relations, while also “opening a wider range of military to military communications” with the People’s Liberation Army.
The newly released NSS also places Europe in the crosshairs, including terms that warn of “civilizational erasure” on the continent and also seemingly calling for a halt to NATO expansion.
While Hegseth did not outline new changes to the US military’s force posture in the region or to NATO, some lawmakers attending the weekend forum voiced concerns about what the NSS may mean for US-European relations.
During an interview with Breaking Defense, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., didn’t mince words when he called the document a “bad strategy.”
“They spend a lot more time criticizing Europe than they do Russia,” he said on the sidelines of the RNDF today.
“You could tell that — they’re communicating they want to push back NATO. Do less of NATO,” he added. “I think that’s not what the American people voted for, nor want, and we saw the polling numbers today,” Bacon said, referencing the Ronald Reagan Institute defense and national security poll.
With Republicans in the majority in both chambers of Congress, there has been limited pushback on the Trump administration. However, Bacon said there could be a growing bipartisan call for more answers about the NSS and, potentially, plans to pull troops out of places inside Europe like Romania.
“They didn’t coordinate with Congress, they didn’t coordinate with Romania,” Bacon said. “It’s made a terrible statement to NATO and Russia.”
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., called it the most “unprincipled” NSS he has ever seen.
“It didn’t try to attempt to establish that we had any particular values, rules based international order, freedom, democracy, human rights, more economic opportunity even,” he told Breaking Defense today. “It basically said, ‘Look, the US is a powerful country. We have the ability to go out and grab stuff in the world.’”
Smith added that while he is troubled by the document’s Monroe Doctrine language, as well as the slights to European immigration policies, he said he’s not optimistic that there will be enough Republican support in Congress to challenge the administration’s assertions.
“The Republicans are still talking about American values, but they’re thus far unwilling to challenge this president when he directly contradicts and places at risk those very values that they profess to support,” he added.