In this episode, we sit down with Department of Defense Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson to talk about his time at the Pentagon's Media Row. He talks about the name change to the Department of War, the importance of diversity within the force, and how the Defense Department is focused on the core mission of warfare.
00:01:11.720I am Elad Eliyahu, the White House correspondent here at TimCast.
00:01:14.920But today we have a very exciting different episode for you because we are at the Pentagon's Media Row where we are doing interviews with different Pentagon officials.
00:01:22.580Today we have Department of War Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson here with us today.
00:01:27.280Thank you so much for taking the time to do this Media Row.
00:01:29.840Since we're a little bit strained on time, I kind of wanted to just jump right into it.
00:01:33.260One of the first things I wanted to ask you about is one of the new initiatives here was changing the name from Department of Defense to Department of War.
00:01:39.200I actually heard the slip up in yesterday's perspective regarding that.
00:01:43.060What should we understand from the name change here?
00:01:47.600Your name speaks to what you do and who you are, right?
00:01:50.600And here at the department, we've been focused, I think, under previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, on endless defense, endless nation building.
00:01:59.780And we're really, at the end of the day, getting back to our core mission of war fighting, of lethality, of basics, right?
00:02:06.720Our warriors sign up not because they want to, you know, do nation building across the world, but because they want to be lethal.
00:02:33.740And I think it communicates something that defense really never could.
00:02:36.980So we're very excited about that change.
00:02:38.500We've been changing a lot of the plaques around the building and making sure that everything's up to date.
00:02:42.980And I think it really has been emblematic of the culture shift we have seen under Secretary Hegseth.
00:02:47.980Now our war fighters aren't focusing on DEI, climate change, drag queen story times, on Navy ships.
00:02:54.560Now they're focused on getting back to basics, being fit, lethality, having weapons that work and are strong.
00:03:01.980So all of that's going to continue to be a priority for us going forward.
00:03:04.780Absolutely. And to follow up on one of the things that you mentioned, as I understand, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has been rolling back the different DEI initiatives that were here at the Department of War.
00:03:13.980Can you describe some of the initiatives and tell me why is this an important thing for him to be working on?
00:03:19.480Yeah, so so much of our military, unfortunately, under the previous administration had this ideology injected into the force.
00:03:25.260And that's a real shame, because our political ideologies shouldn't be in our armed forces, right?
00:03:31.860We've got Americans of all stripes and colors, and we want to make sure that everyone is unified.
00:03:36.160Our unity is our strength, as the Secretary always says, not our diversity.
00:03:59.740Thanks to President Trump's executive order, in large part, we've been able to make that a permanent reality here.
00:04:05.020So now our warriors can know if you're up for promotion, the best person is going to be selected for the job based on merit.
00:04:10.920It's not going to be on the color of your skin or on your gender.
00:04:14.660I know also in the speech where Secretary of War Pete Hexth was talking about this, he also mentioned that some generals were overweight and they need to renew these standards.
00:05:24.600I know we say it in like a tongue-of-cheek kind of way, but this does really affect our military readiness, as I understand.
00:05:30.540I wanted to follow up with you, too, on one of the big news stories surrounding the Department of War, and that is our military actions in international seas regarding drug boats coming from Venezuela.
00:05:41.820What are our military goals in Venezuela and the surrounding areas?
00:05:47.920So our military goal right now in the South Com region generally is to dismantle narco-terrorism.
00:05:53.220The president designated a lot of narco-terrorist cartels as designated terrorist organizations, and what that did for us at the department is it unlocked a lot.
00:06:01.640Now we can engage in lethal and kinetic ways that we never could before, and we're focused on narco-terrorists, whatever country they come from.
00:06:09.120If you're someone who is trafficking drugs, deadly narcotics, to the United States to poison our people, we're going to take you out.
00:06:15.900The president has said it time and time again, every single boat that we hit saves 25,000 American lives.
00:06:20.940That is absolutely something that the War Department should be focused on doing, and we're going to continue to do it going forward.
00:06:27.520Moving forward, is it important to seek congressional approval?
00:06:30.340I don't know if the narco-terrorism claim, not that Maduro is or isn't, kind of doesn't require you guys, as I understand, to receive congressional approval.
00:06:38.660Is that something that you guys are thinking about around here?
00:06:40.340Yeah, so for the moment in time where we are right now with the boat strikes, the president has the authority to direct these strikes well within his powers as our commander-in-chief, and he is exercising those powers.
00:06:52.920We, of course, keep the Hill informed.
00:06:54.720We've briefed them 18 times as a department on these ongoing strikes.
00:06:58.700Of course, there's been 21, so we've been briefing them quite a lot on our ongoing operations, and we'll continue to do so.
00:07:04.540But for us right now, I wouldn't want to preview any future operations that the president may or may not decide to engage with or to direct.
00:07:12.080But for this moment in time, the president has delegated this authority to us at the War Department, and we're able to carry it out.
00:07:17.220There's been some consternation surrounding a recent military strike, this alleged double-tap by Admiral Bradley.
00:07:25.340I don't need to ask you about the specifics about that.
00:07:27.880I want to get your reaction to Senator Mark Kelly, and I think it was also Senator Van Hollen implying that if the allegations in The Washington Post are true, that this may potentially constitute a war crime.
00:07:39.380Have you heard that, and what's your reaction to high-ranking Democrats saying stuff like this?
00:07:43.420Yeah, it's been ridiculous to watch both folks on the Hill and the mainstream media go into apoplexy about these strikes.
00:07:50.740We have said time and time again from the beginning, from the very first strike, that these strikes were lethal kinetic strikes.
00:07:56.720They were designed to sink these boats and to eliminate the threat that they posed to the American people, and we are 100% confident in the fact that these are legal strikes well within our authorities.
00:08:07.700Every single military and civilian lawyer up and down the chain of command has agreed with such, and we are going to continue to take them out.
00:08:14.240And it's disheartening for me to see people who cheered on endless war in the Middle East for 20 years and had no issue with a lot of questionable strikes over there now criticize ones that are so legal and that our warfighters are working so hard to execute.
00:08:28.280Because I think we saw this with Operation Midnight Hammer, when you question the job that our warfighters did, it's really offensive, I think.
00:08:37.640They're down there on the ground, engaging, keeping the American people safe, and they're really good at their jobs.
00:08:44.440They know exactly what they need to be doing well within the confines of the law and will continue to do it.
00:08:49.300So it's shameful, I think, when we see people question the job they're doing and question this commander's-in-chief ability to take out narco-terrorists.
00:08:57.020I would also add that it's what the American people elected him to do.
00:09:00.060He is the one person elected by the whole of the American people to carry out strikes like these.
00:09:05.540He campaigned on this, right, taking out narco-terrorism, ending the drug flow into our country, and he's keeping that promise.
00:09:14.100I know we've been focusing a bit on Venezuela, but I don't believe that's the biggest military threat to the United States.
00:09:18.880I wanted to ask you, from the Department of War's perspective, what do you guys believe is the biggest military threat to the United States?
00:09:24.140So protecting our homeland is definitely our biggest priority as a department.
00:09:27.680And whether that's, you know, what we're doing with these strikes in our hemisphere or down at the southern border,
00:09:33.020we've got nearly 10,000 troops right now down at the U.S. southern border working alongside Border Patrol.
00:09:38.520No one is crossing the border anymore.
00:09:40.080So homeland defense is definitely America first.
00:09:43.580It's going to continue to be a priority.
00:09:45.880That said, we've got other emerging threats in theaters all across the world.
00:09:49.820We look to the Indo-Pacific, for example, and we're making sure that we have a lot of ships that are going to be ready to meet any threats that could come from there.
00:09:56.980That was the Secretary's first international trip, I believe.
00:10:00.120He went out to the Indo-Pacific to talk about the different threats that we face there.
00:10:04.620So, you know, we know that there's a lot of threats across the world that we face.
00:10:08.360We prioritize them in a way that we think makes sense.
00:10:11.860And we've leaned to on our partners to take more of the burden.
00:10:15.960In places like Europe, for instance, we're footing the bill for a lot of NATO and a lot of European security.
00:10:23.900All of our NATO partners have committed to meet that 5 percent spending goal, which the president accomplished earlier this year.
00:10:30.040So that's a theater where now we can focus maybe more on the Indo-Pacific because our allies are stepping up and filling in some of that gap.
00:10:38.060A couple of quick questions on the Indo-Pacific.
00:10:40.340One on the national security risk of Chinese student visas here.
00:10:44.460There's over 600,000 roughly Chinese nationals here on student visas.
00:10:48.480Do you think that poses any national security risk?
00:10:50.280I think that would probably be more of a question for the State Department and for DHS.
00:10:55.420But I can definitely tell you that we are always seeking to protect the American people from any threats that could come our way, whatever country it is.
00:11:03.220And we'll maintain that focus going forward.
00:11:05.680Also, a little bit of a touchy subject, but recently the Japanese prime minister said on a hypothetical attack on Taiwan by China could be deemed a situation threatening Japan's survival.
00:11:16.460Has this come to the attention of the secretary of war?
00:11:19.260And do you guys have a response to that?
00:11:20.500Do you guys agree with the Japanese prime minister's understanding here?
00:11:25.300I'm not sure on the specific comment that you mentioned there.
00:11:29.040But I will tell you that the secretary recently went to Japan, had a fantastic meeting over there and visit over there.
00:11:35.120We will continue to work closely with them and all of our allies in the Indo-Pacific and all of our partners over there to make sure that they feel they're safe and strong and our American interests are protected, number one.
00:11:47.420Just really quickly, this one last topic I wanted to quickly harp on.
00:11:50.840It feels as though many in the media have it out for your boss, Secretary of War Pete Hexeth, in a few different ways.
00:11:56.980Before, you know, he had a slim majority in which he was confirmed by, and then he had his tattoo that was paraded around that was a big media circus.
00:12:06.760There was also the signal gate stuff that they were making a big circus out of.
00:12:11.200Do you feel as though people in the mainstream media are out for scalps, per se, and, you know, are trying to get Pete Hexeth out of his position?
00:12:20.620They certainly have not pulled any punches ever since he was nominated, right?
00:12:24.560He's been under mainstream media attack.
00:12:26.800And I think that really speaks to the fact that he's over the target, right?
00:12:29.700He's taking a lot of arrows because he is committed to the president's agenda, and he is going to aggressively ensure that it is carried out across this department.
00:12:38.340It's, you know, the largest military in the world, and we're going to make sure that everyone is in line with the America First mission, and everyone is up to standards, is focused on lethality and warfighting.
00:12:50.320And in a city like D.C., that can be a tough mission and a tough sell, but he's committed to it, and he's tough, and he doesn't really let the mainstream media get to him whatsoever.
00:13:00.320So he's focused on the mission, and we as a department will continue to be focused on the mission.
00:13:04.100So the media doesn't only seem to have it out for Pete Hexeth, but Secretary of War Hexeth might seem to have it out for the media, too, a little bit, some would say.
00:13:12.540I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that you guys have a new media program and a new media initiative here.
00:13:17.200The old Pentagon Press Corps was asked to sign the new rules that you guys had here, which, full disclosure, I was a signatory to, and that was able to get me access here.
00:13:27.720What are your goals with these new media initiatives?
00:13:31.320What were you guys hoping to achieve with it?
00:13:32.840How were the people at the press corps in the past falling short, and how would you like the new media Pentagon reporters to, you know, really step up to the plate here?
00:13:40.500We're really excited to welcome so much of the new media because it's an amalgamation of people from all sorts of different mediums, right?
00:13:50.320We've got, you know, networks like Real America's Voice, OAN, and we want to make sure that we're getting our message out to the American people wherever they're consuming their news.
00:13:58.740And we're increasingly seeing people cutting the cord.
00:14:01.480They don't have cable news subscriptions anymore.
00:14:03.340They're getting their news from X, from Instagram, just from various social media platforms.
00:14:08.440So it's important for us as a war department to be on those platforms and to not only engage with legacy media who has dwindling audiences and viewerships.
00:14:16.780We want to make sure that we're talking to people who have large audiences and who are going to get our message out to the people and also to our warfighters.
00:14:23.280And it's important for us in terms of recruiting, too, right?
00:14:25.780A lot of young people aren't sitting there watching CNN or MSNBC or reading The Washington Post every single day.
00:14:34.460And they're getting their news that way and engaging with content that way.
00:14:37.460So our focus has really been on engaging with new media.
00:14:40.860The president employed this strategy on the campaign trail, sitting down with a lot of podcasters.
00:14:44.700And we want to make sure that we're doing that and we're also engaging on our end from the digital side and making sure that we're reaching as many people as humanly possible.