US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday elicited instant ridicule after he unveiled a new plan to offer military personnel testosterone injections.
In a video announcement, Hegseth said he was authorizing a screening program to ensure US soldiers “have the right testosterone levels” to perform at their “absolute best.”
“It’s well established science that, as we age, testosterone levels often drop,” the US defense secretary explained. “Under the supervision of our world-class medical professionals, warfighters aged 30 and older are going to be tested annually as part of their periodic health assessment.”
Personnel who are found lacking in testosterone, Hegseth continued, would get recommendations for hormone injections, though he emphasized that this would be entirely optional.
“This initiative, it’s not about artificial enhancement,” Hegseth emphasized. “It’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities.”
Critics on social media responded to Hegseth’s new testosterone injection plan with mockery.
Journalist Amanda Katz joked that Hegseth’s plan was “literally gender-affirming care” of the kind that Hegseth halted for transgender service members last year.
Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) similarly asked Hegseth if the new program means that “now y’all support gender-affirming care?”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said that the Hegseth initiative “is gender affirming care and it completely debunks all of Republicans’ attacks on trans people.”
Fred Wellman, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Missouri and a veteran of the US Army, called Hegseth’s initiative “the absolute dumbest thing imaginable for the secretary of defense to be focused on.”
“We are literally at war and this idiot is in his office doing two camera make up videos on testosterone,” Wellman added. “What a complete clown show. I’m so sorry for our poor service members who have to deal with this ridiculous man.”
Attorney Bradley Moss likened the Hegseth plan to the plot of Soldier, a 1998 movie starring Kurt Russell that bombed with both critics and audiences.
Moss added, however, that Hegseth’s idea appeared even “stupider” than the movie.
Attorney Will Stancil wondered if Hegseth’s testosterone program might finally push some military personnel over the edge.
“Without a hint of sarcasm I think he might get himself fragged eventually,” Stancil wrote.
