The thing to remember about Pete Hegseth is that he’s genuinely running the Pentagon like an eight-year-old boy who thinks that girls have cooties. He literally thinks he’s playing GI Joe and that he’s perfectly within his rights to remake the Pentagon into the He-Man Woman-Haters Club. Just this week, Hegseth blocked even more promotions for women – he blocked seven Naval promotions, five of which were for women or people of color, meaning that zero women will be promoted to admiral this year. That’s not the only idiotic thing Hegseth is doing this week though. Hegseth has decided that all service members, male and female, will now face mandatory screenings for low testosterone. If they have low-T, the Pentagon will pay for their hormone treatment. This is gender-affirming care.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday a new mandatory screening program to test all service members age 30 and older, including women, for testosterone deficiency annually. Hormone treatment for troops with low testosterone will be voluntary.

“Our most decisive tactical advantage will always be the individual warfighter,” Mr. Hegseth said in a video from his Pentagon office. “We have a sacred duty to maintain that advantage.”

The goal, he said in a social media message accompanying the video, was a “High-T Department of War,” Mr. Hegseth’s preferred name for the Defense Department.

Mr. Hegseth’s focus on testosterone levels at a moment when U.S. forces are ramping up attacks in Iran is unorthodox. Defense secretaries typically focus on larger strategic questions, involving alliances, war and weapons production.

But Mr. Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and Iraq war veteran, has not shied away from getting involved in the minutiae of service members’ lives, such as mandating new grooming standards for troops who, because of skin conditions, had previously been permitted to grow beards. “No more beardos,” he proclaimed.

Troops under 30 can volunteer to be screened, and anyone with low hormone levels will have the option to receive testosterone replacement therapy, or T.R.T. “It’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capability,” Mr. Hegseth said.

The aim, he said, is to better prepare service members for a modern battlefield that Mr. Hegseth described as “brutal and unrelenting.”

[From The NY Times]

“The High-T Department of War” is something a child would say, if children even know about low-T. It’s just so performative and toxic. While low-T is a real thing, especially for middle-aged men, there’s absolutely no reason for mandatory testosterone screenings for all servicemen and servicewomen. There’s also no reason to ban beards. Hegseth is such a f–king loser, my god.

Am I alone in wondering why the Low-T War Department has better-quality lighting than most modern films?

The High-T Department of War. pic.twitter.com/hlAUq3j2cD

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) July 15, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.