SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Well, Senator, Governor, Mr. Secretary, thank you for hitching a ride with us this morning to sunny South Carolina. All patriots I've had a chance to work with, our great Treasury Secretary, and he is a patriot of the highest order and loves our military, so it's an honor to have you here today.
Senator Lindsey Graham dedicated his life to serving this state and serving the Armed forces of the United States. He served this nation both in uniform and in both houses of Congress, as everyone here knows.
But in both capacities, it was always the same mission. He knew the timeless truth that to ensure peace, we must be prepared for war. Protect your people, protect your state, protect your sovereignty, or you will lose it to someone else who is willing to take it from you.
Lindsey spent his final years taking on a radical leftist ideology that had run rampant in the media, in academia, and even among a few members of Congress. The hard left declared war on our own military.
This nation spent 45 years fighting communism in the Cold War, and that was 30 years ago. Now it seems that many people have forgotten the reality of what communism looks like. It starts off with promises and it ends in prisons. It promises heaven but delivers hell. Senator Graham stood up against that radical woke ideology that killed our military recruiting. Under the previous administration, they couldn't even hit recruiting goals. Young patriots didn't want to serve under these woke so-called “leaders.” But instead of raising standards, they lowered goals.
President Trump promised the American people, alongside Senator Graham, that he would rebuild the military. He promised he would make our forces stronger than ever, and that he would run those radicals out of the Pentagon, and that's exactly what he and we have done. In this new golden age of America, President Trump has had no stronger ally in Congress than Colonel Lindsey Graham.
It falls to us to complete the work that Lindsey Graham began and advocated for, for decades. As we gather here today, the War Department is seeking a historic generational investment of $1.5 trillion for American warriors. And Lindsey himself said, to me in his office, “this is the best military budget I've seen since I've been in Congress” – end quote.
This department pays tribute to Lindsey Graham in the naming of this base, but there could be no greater tribute than Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion. More on that in a moment.
Fully funding our warriors would be one last great accomplishment for Colonel Lindsey Graham and a major part of his legacy. And I believe that he will continue here and around the world to inspire airmen for generations to come. And I say around the world, because, as was mentioned, those gray tails that say Charleston, now, when they land in far flung places, will say, Graham. The world will remember that name.
South Carolinians grow up with stories of legendary warriors from this state, warriors like the swamp fox, Francis Marion, who helped win our freedom at Yorktown; like Lieutenant Irwin David Shaw, a pilot who gave his life in World War I; or General Bernie McIntyre, who spent his final moments saving innocent lives; or how about just a few weeks ago, President Trump gave the Medal of Honor to a marine who fought the communists in the jungles of Vietnam, James Capers, Jr. of Lee County, South Carolina. Now, South Carolinians will grow up learning about the namesake of this incredible joint base, Senator Lindsey Graham.
I'm proud to say that I actually knew him for more than 20 years. I was telling his sister that. Nineteen years ago, young lieutenant, uh, First Lieutenant Pete Hegseth came back from Iraq and was a part of a veterans' organization called Vets for Freedom that believed in the surge in Iraq and advocating for the troops on the ground. We were a young, scrappy veterans' organization with no money and no access and connections.
The first and only senator willing to meet with First Lieutenant Pete Hegseth and nowheresville Vets for Freedom, was Senator Lindsey Graham. He welcomed us into his conference room, sat us down as a bunch of lieutenants and NCOs and others around the table, fresh back from Iraq, who wanted the right strategy. I'll never forget it in his accent, he sat there and he said, gentlemen -- I can't do it. It always devolves into a Trump accent. He said, gentlemen, welcome to a place where you can still say the word victory. He believed in mission success. He believed in the troops. He believed in giving the troops everything they needed.
And he served himself. In fact, a few years later, Captain Hegseth was an instructor in a base on the outskirts of Kabul in Afghanistan and who came to visit, Colonel Lindsey Graham. I had mentioned that we were out there at the counterinsurgency school, and we could give him an update on what the Taliban was up to. Sure enough, during his reserve duty, there he was, jet-lagged as all -- as all hell, because man had a schedule like nobody else. But he was there to hear from us because he wanted his ear to the ground for the truth of what was actually happening in the war in Afghanistan.
Fast forward, I mentioned the military budget of $1.5 trillion. The last meeting I had with Senator Graham was about a week before his passing, uh, or so, maybe two weeks before his passing. And he said, uh, he's the budget committee chairman, so, Mr. Secretary, what do you need for a reconciliation? I said, well, in total, sir, we're going to need $350 billion for our military. That's what we believe gets us to 1.5 trillion – $115 billion in the base budget, $350 billion in reconciliation and we'll be ready.
He looked at me and said, how's $355 billion sound? He wanted to give even more than $350 billion. He wanted to ensure our military was as equipped as humanly possible, because he was thinking of places like this one right here. I saw firsthand as a young first lieutenant, as a captain in a combat zone, and as a secretary, the unwavering commitment of Lindsey Graham.
And he knew that if you're going to seek peace, you have to be prepared for war. You have to have a prepared military. If you walk -- talk the talk and walk the walk. And now, 20 years later, thanks to his help in the Senate, this administration is breaking recruiting records for beating our goals. We're taking back the department from the wokesters, and we're making sure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon.
Every president for a quarter century declared that they would not let Iran get a nuclear weapon, but they never did anything about it, until President Donald J. Trump. And Lindsey Graham was right there for him in the Senate.
And so now it falls to us to continue Senator Graham's work of building up our military, the hard work of defending this nation. And I know with full confidence, that is exactly what we will do.
Well done, Colonel Graham. We have the watch from here. So my fellow Americans, it is my honor to say welcome to Joint Base Lindsey Graham. May God bless you.