In a remarkable turnaround from the Biden years, the U.S. Army is meeting its recruiting goals with flying colors. The military branch reported this week that it has met its 2025 goal of 61,000 new recruits four months ahead of schedule. Experts say the reversal is due to inspiring new leadership in the White House and at the Pentagon, who are returning the focus of the military to core values such as strength and readiness and away from controversial identity-focused ideologies.

The Army recruitment boom met a goal that was 10% higher than in 2024, according to an Army Times report Tuesday. It also marks a definitive reversal of the downward trend in recruiting that occurred in 2022 and 2023, when the Army fell 15,000 and 11,000 short of its recruitment goals, respectively.

During those years, the Biden administration grabbed headlines for inserting highly controversial agendas into the military, including West Point cadets being inundated with lessons on critical race theory (CRT) that included how “whiteness” is “a location of structural advantage, of race privilege” and how “racism is ordinary” and “White Americans have primarily benefited from civil rights legislation.” In addition, drag shows were held on military bases as gender ideology was ensconced into military policies, including the changing of Department of Defense vocabulary to reflect transgender ideology, the allowance of cross-dressing on and off-base, and the restriction of the “collection and disclosure of data on ‘incidents of harmful behaviors’ involving sexual orientation and transgender persons,” among other policies.

In contrast, President Trump made it clear from the outset of his term in January that transgender ideology would have no place in the military going forward. On January 27, he signed an executive order entitled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” which stipulated that the mission of the military “requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos” and that the U.S. government must therefore “establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.” It rolled back the transgender policies that had been implemented under Biden (including opposite-sex pronoun usage and opposite-sex usage of private spaces) and restricted those identifying as transgender from entering the military.

Military officials like Army Secretary Dan Driscoll are welcoming the changes.

“I want to thank the commander in chief, President Trump, and Secretary of Defense [Pete] Hegseth for their decisive leadership and support in equipping, training and supporting these future Soldiers as they face a world of global uncertainty and complex threats,” he told the Army Times. “Putting soldiers first is having a tangible impact and shows that young people across our country want to be part of the most lethal land fighting force the world has ever seen.”

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday, Driscoll elaborated further. “With clear vision from President Trump and steadfast leadership from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Army is again focused on what matters most: strength, readiness and winning.”

Driscoll went on to contend that recruitment is up largely due to the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon taking steps to prioritize the interests of servicemembers. “Thanks to Congressional action, the quality of life for our soldiers has also improved,” he wrote. “The 2025 Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act delivered a historic pay raise for junior enlisted soldiers, housing improvements, healthcare access and child-care and spousal support.”

Lawmakers like Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.) are also expressing enthusiasm for the Trump administration’s reboot of military priorities.

“I love what Pete says,” he remarked during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Wednesday. “No more climate change, no more transgender surgeries. We are here to make our military lethal so that we can protect the American people.”

McGuire, a former Navy SEAL who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, went on to observe, “[W]e’ve reached our recruiting numbers for the Army four months early, and we haven’t even gotten into the most productive months for recruiting this year yet. So we’re on the way. What a difference having President Trump in the White House makes. … America first. We have a great country. People need to be taught patriotism. Our Judeo-Christian values need to be taught.”

As to whether the Trump administration will be able to completely undo the identity-focused military policies of the Biden administration within their four-year window, McGuire expressed confidence.

“By the grace of God, we got President Trump back in the White House, and it didn’t take him four years to secure that border — he did it in four weeks,” the congressman observed. “… We were over the cliff. But I think the hand of God pulled us back over. But we’ve got work to do. But I know God’s in control. God gets the last word. I have faith that we’re going to turn this country around.”