The Culture War - Tim Pool - December 05, 2025


Pentagon NUKES Biden Admin DEI Policies, Press Sec Kingsley Wilson Says MERIT IS BACK

Topics
name change to Department of War narco-terrorism strikes new media initiatives
Hosted by
Tim Pool Phil Labonte Hannah Claire Brimelow
Mentioned
Pete Hegseth Kingsley Wilson Trump Border Patrol Mark Kelly Van Halen Bradley Maduro Biden
Radiation At 20 YEAR HIGH, Solar Storm GETS WORSE, Airbus Says WE ARE NOT READY Trump Is Going To Save Britain ｜ The Culture War's Across The Pond

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

198.67

Word count

3,128

Sentence count

203

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

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.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:01:09.600 Hey, everybody.
00:01:11.720 I am Elad Eliyahu, the White House correspondent here at TimCast.
00:01:14.920 But 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.
00:01:22.580 Today we have Department of War Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson here with us today.
00:01:27.280 Thank you so much for taking the time to do this Media Row.
00:01:29.840 Since we're a little bit strained on time, I kind of wanted to just jump right into it.
00:01:32.740 Absolutely.
00:01:33.260 One 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.
00:01:39.200 I actually heard the slip up in yesterday's perspective regarding that.
00:01:43.060 What should we understand from the name change here?
00:01:45.960 I think it's really important.
00:01:47.600 Your name speaks to what you do and who you are, right?
00:01:50.600 And here at the department, we've been focused, I think, under previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, on endless defense, endless nation building.
00:01:59.780 And we're really, at the end of the day, getting back to our core mission of war fighting, of lethality, of basics, right?
00:02:06.720 Our warriors sign up not because they want to, you know, do nation building across the world, but because they want to be lethal.
00:02:12.620 They want to be war fighters.
00:02:13.640 They want to defend the American people wherever they can.
00:02:16.340 So our name really now communicates that.
00:02:18.460 It communicates strength.
00:02:19.600 And President Trump is the peace through strength president, right?
00:02:22.440 He doesn't seek war.
00:02:23.600 We don't seek war at this department.
00:02:25.440 We hope to never have to engage in war, but we're going to be prepared for it.
00:02:29.280 And we're going to make sure that our warriors are prepared for it.
00:02:31.680 So our name speaks to that now.
00:02:33.740 And I think it communicates something that defense really never could.
00:02:36.980 So we're very excited about that change.
00:02:38.500 We've been changing a lot of the plaques around the building and making sure that everything's up to date.
00:02:42.980 And I think it really has been emblematic of the culture shift we have seen under Secretary Hegseth.
00:02:47.980 Now our war fighters aren't focusing on DEI, climate change, drag queen story times, on Navy ships. 0.62
00:02:54.560 Now they're focused on getting back to basics, being fit, lethality, having weapons that work and are strong.
00:03:01.980 So all of that's going to continue to be a priority for us going forward.
00:03:04.780 Absolutely. 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.
00:03:13.980 Can you describe some of the initiatives and tell me why is this an important thing for him to be working on?
00:03:19.480 Yeah, so so much of our military, unfortunately, under the previous administration had this ideology injected into the force.
00:03:25.260 And that's a real shame, because our political ideologies shouldn't be in our armed forces, right?
00:03:31.860 We've got Americans of all stripes and colors, and we want to make sure that everyone is unified.
00:03:36.160 Our unity is our strength, as the Secretary always says, not our diversity.
00:03:39.700 We all wear the same uniform, right?
00:03:41.320 If you're in the military, you all have the same mission.
00:03:43.740 And we're committed to that going forward.
00:03:45.500 And we've dismantled a lot of the ridiculous DEI-focused promotions that we had in the previous administration.
00:03:51.460 The previous administration, they would promote someone if they met a quota, right?
00:03:55.280 If they were the right race or if they were the right sex. 1.00
00:03:58.160 We're getting rid of all of that.
00:03:59.740 Thanks to President Trump's executive order, in large part, we've been able to make that a permanent reality here.
00:04:05.020 So 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.
00:04:10.920 It's not going to be on the color of your skin or on your gender.
00:04:14.660 I 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.
00:04:24.220 I don't know.
00:04:24.700 Did he get any pushback from some of the generals around here for noticing that some of them are on the heavier set?
00:04:31.340 Perhaps.
00:04:32.100 I can tell you that he is definitely correct.
00:04:34.320 There are a lot of our generals and just the force in general that are overweight.
00:04:38.180 It's totally unacceptable.
00:04:39.700 We have standards.
00:04:40.640 We have to meet them.
00:04:41.540 We've unfortunately gotten pretty lax with those standards under the Biden administration.
00:04:46.280 And those days are over.
00:04:47.620 We're going to be fit, not fat, the secretary always likes to say.
00:04:50.420 And at the end of the day, the American people need to have confidence that the best of the best are in our military defending them.
00:04:56.200 And that's what we're going to do.
00:04:57.520 So we're going to make, you know, stuff tougher, too.
00:04:59.740 There were a lot of, in the previous administration, combat arms positions, some of our most physically demanding MOSs and positions.
00:05:07.820 There were separate requirements for men and women.
00:05:10.980 We've made it a single standard.
00:05:12.600 If women make that standard, fantastic. 1.00
00:05:15.200 But if not, they shouldn't be given that position simply by virtue of the fact that they're a female. 1.00
00:05:19.800 So we're going to have high standards and we're going to have uniform standards across our force.
00:05:24.320 Absolutely.
00:05:24.600 I know we say it in like a tongue-of-cheek kind of way, but this does really affect our military readiness, as I understand.
00:05:30.540 I 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.
00:05:41.820 What are our military goals in Venezuela and the surrounding areas?
00:05:47.920 So our military goal right now in the South Com region generally is to dismantle narco-terrorism.
00:05:53.220 The 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.
00:06:01.640 Now 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. 1.00
00:06:09.120 If you're someone who is trafficking drugs, deadly narcotics, to the United States to poison our people, we're going to take you out.
00:06:15.900 The president has said it time and time again, every single boat that we hit saves 25,000 American lives.
00:06:20.940 That is absolutely something that the War Department should be focused on doing, and we're going to continue to do it going forward.
00:06:27.520 Moving forward, is it important to seek congressional approval?
00:06:30.340 I 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.
00:06:38.660 Is that something that you guys are thinking about around here?
00:06:40.340 Yeah, 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.
00:06:52.920 We, of course, keep the Hill informed.
00:06:54.720 We've briefed them 18 times as a department on these ongoing strikes.
00:06:58.700 Of 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.
00:07:04.540 But 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.
00:07:12.080 But 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.
00:07:17.220 There's been some consternation surrounding a recent military strike, this alleged double-tap by Admiral Bradley.
00:07:25.340 I don't need to ask you about the specifics about that.
00:07:27.880 I 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.
00:07:39.380 Have you heard that, and what's your reaction to high-ranking Democrats saying stuff like this?
00:07:43.420 Yeah, it's been ridiculous to watch both folks on the Hill and the mainstream media go into apoplexy about these strikes.
00:07:50.740 We have said time and time again from the beginning, from the very first strike, that these strikes were lethal kinetic strikes.
00:07:56.720 They 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.
00:08:07.700 Every 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.
00:08:14.240 And 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.
00:08:28.280 Because I think we saw this with Operation Midnight Hammer, when you question the job that our warfighters did, it's really offensive, I think.
00:08:35.880 They do incredible things every day.
00:08:37.640 They're down there on the ground, engaging, keeping the American people safe, and they're really good at their jobs.
00:08:44.440 They know exactly what they need to be doing well within the confines of the law and will continue to do it.
00:08:49.300 So 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. 0.95
00:08:57.020 I would also add that it's what the American people elected him to do.
00:09:00.060 He is the one person elected by the whole of the American people to carry out strikes like these.
00:09:05.540 He campaigned on this, right, taking out narco-terrorism, ending the drug flow into our country, and he's keeping that promise. 0.98
00:09:11.580 We're proud to be a part of it.
00:09:12.840 Absolutely.
00:09:14.100 I know we've been focusing a bit on Venezuela, but I don't believe that's the biggest military threat to the United States.
00:09:18.880 I 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?
00:09:24.140 So protecting our homeland is definitely our biggest priority as a department.
00:09:27.680 And whether that's, you know, what we're doing with these strikes in our hemisphere or down at the southern border,
00:09:33.020 we've got nearly 10,000 troops right now down at the U.S. southern border working alongside Border Patrol.
00:09:38.520 No one is crossing the border anymore.
00:09:40.080 So homeland defense is definitely America first.
00:09:43.580 It's going to continue to be a priority.
00:09:45.880 That said, we've got other emerging threats in theaters all across the world.
00:09:49.820 We 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.
00:09:56.980 That was the Secretary's first international trip, I believe.
00:10:00.120 He went out to the Indo-Pacific to talk about the different threats that we face there.
00:10:04.620 So, you know, we know that there's a lot of threats across the world that we face.
00:10:08.360 We prioritize them in a way that we think makes sense.
00:10:11.860 And we've leaned to on our partners to take more of the burden.
00:10:15.960 In places like Europe, for instance, we're footing the bill for a lot of NATO and a lot of European security.
00:10:21.320 We've offloaded a lot of that now.
00:10:23.900 All of our NATO partners have committed to meet that 5 percent spending goal, which the president accomplished earlier this year.
00:10:30.040 So 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.
00:10:38.060 A couple of quick questions on the Indo-Pacific.
00:10:40.340 One on the national security risk of Chinese student visas here.
00:10:44.460 There's over 600,000 roughly Chinese nationals here on student visas.
00:10:48.480 Do you think that poses any national security risk?
00:10:50.280 I think that would probably be more of a question for the State Department and for DHS.
00:10:55.420 But 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.
00:11:03.220 And we'll maintain that focus going forward.
00:11:05.680 Also, 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.
00:11:16.460 Has this come to the attention of the secretary of war?
00:11:19.260 And do you guys have a response to that?
00:11:20.500 Do you guys agree with the Japanese prime minister's understanding here?
00:11:25.300 I'm not sure on the specific comment that you mentioned there.
00:11:28.120 I can definitely check.
00:11:29.040 But I will tell you that the secretary recently went to Japan, had a fantastic meeting over there and visit over there.
00:11:35.120 We 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.
00:11:46.920 Absolutely.
00:11:47.420 Just really quickly, this one last topic I wanted to quickly harp on.
00:11:50.840 It feels as though many in the media have it out for your boss, Secretary of War Pete Hexeth, in a few different ways.
00:11:56.980 Before, 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.
00:12:06.760 There was also the signal gate stuff that they were making a big circus out of.
00:12:11.200 Do 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?
00:12:20.620 They certainly have not pulled any punches ever since he was nominated, right?
00:12:24.560 He's been under mainstream media attack.
00:12:26.800 And I think that really speaks to the fact that he's over the target, right?
00:12:29.700 He'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.
00:12:37.440 And it's a big department.
00:12:38.340 It'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.
00:12:50.320 And 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.
00:13:00.320 So he's focused on the mission, and we as a department will continue to be focused on the mission.
00:13:04.100 So 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.
00:13:12.540 I 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.
00:13:17.200 The 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.
00:13:27.720 What are your goals with these new media initiatives?
00:13:31.320 What were you guys hoping to achieve with it?
00:13:32.840 How 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?
00:13:40.500 We'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?
00:13:46.960 We've got influencers here, independent podcasters.
00:13:50.320 We'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.
00:13:58.740 And we're increasingly seeing people cutting the cord.
00:14:01.480 They don't have cable news subscriptions anymore.
00:14:03.340 They're getting their news from X, from Instagram, just from various social media platforms.
00:14:08.440 So 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.
00:14:16.780 We 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.
00:14:23.280 And it's important for us in terms of recruiting, too, right?
00:14:25.780 A lot of young people aren't sitting there watching CNN or MSNBC or reading The Washington Post every single day.
00:14:31.780 They're scrolling on X.
00:14:33.120 They're scrolling on Instagram.
00:14:34.460 And they're getting their news that way and engaging with content that way.
00:14:37.460 So our focus has really been on engaging with new media.
00:14:40.860 The president employed this strategy on the campaign trail, sitting down with a lot of podcasters.
00:14:44.700 And 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.
00:14:53.760 Absolutely.
00:14:54.220 And it's a great honor and privilege to be here.
00:14:57.080 Thank you for the opportunity to be here.
00:14:58.580 Absolutely.
00:14:59.100 Department of War Press Secretary Kingsley, thank you so much for spending the time with us.
00:15:03.340 Thank you so much.
00:15:14.700 Thank you.