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Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller Leads Charge to Confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, the Marine Corps officer who was court-martialed and imprisoned after publicly demanding accountability for the Afghanistan withdrawal, is now leading the effort to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Scheller argues that the warrior class overwhelmingly supports Hegseth because he represents an outside establishment pick who can break the stranglehold of the military-industrial complex. Having gathered petitions from Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and veterans groups representing thousands of signatures, Scheller is meeting with senators on Capitol Hill to make the case that the current system of self-pleasing general officers who navigate bureaucracy for 40 years has failed America. He believes Pete Hegseth can implement a performance-based system focused on lethality and winning, rather than the status quo that has produced declining recruitment rates and diminished war-fighting capability under leaders like Lloyd Austin.
A Marine's Journey from Court-Martial to Capitol Hill
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller served as a United States Marine Corps officer in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror, the same conflicts where Pete Hegseth fought. With a master's degree in military science and a career spent studying foreign policy, Scheller witnessed what he describes as a long list of mistakes during the Afghanistan withdrawal on August 26, 2021.
On that day, Scheller made a video in his uniform demanding accountability from senior military leaders. He deliberately avoided mentioning any politicians, believing that holding senior military officers accountable would be one of the last apolitical issues Americans could agree upon. However, the media immediately framed his statement as criticism of President Biden, thrusting him into what he describes as the hyper-political stratosphere.
The consequences were swift and severe. Scheller was fired the next day, later given a gag order, imprisoned in solitary confinement, court-martialed, and ultimately drummed out of the military short of his retirement. The entire process took six months, during which he made no interviews while the media, in his view, slandered him. The Marine Corps released his medical records to an outlet called Task and Purpose, with articles comparing him to Hitler and labeling him a white supremacist.
The Cardinal Sin: Making Your Bosses Look Bad
After making his accountability video, Scheller was told that if he simply shut his mouth, a general would take care of him. The best-case scenario offered was being hidden in a cubicle making PowerPoint presentations for some general officer for three years until he could limp toward retirement. Scheller knew he couldn't live that way, and more importantly, he believed every word of his original statements.
What deeply bothered him was that no one was addressing the content of his statements. The cardinal sin in the military, as Scheller learned, is making your bosses look bad. An investigation should have taken place, but instead, he was immediately fired and eventually released from service on Christmas Eve, 2021.
Meeting Pete Hegseth and Entering the Media Circuit
After his release, Scheller hit the media circuit for the first time, appearing on Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Laura Ingraham, Jocko's podcast, and the PBD podcast. One of those appearances was on Fox and Friends with Pete Hegseth. He later did another segment with Hegseth to promote his book, and Hegseth brought him to Tennessee for a one-hour in-person segment called Modern Warriors. Notably, Mike Waltz, the incoming National Security Advisor, was one of the five people featured on that show.
Scheller describes Hegseth as a down-to-earth guy in whom he sees himself. He believes this is why all the warriors are rallying around Hegseth's nomination. After writing his book and doing media for two years, everyone wanted Scheller to go into politics, but he insists he's not a politician. He's always loved the military and been focused on making it stronger. He started a business and stepped back from public life until Hegseth received the nomination for Secretary of Defense and anonymous sources began attacking him. That's when Scheller felt compelled to get involved.
The Warrior Class Overwhelmingly Supports Pete Hegseth
Scheller's first step was gauging the pulse of the military community. He contacted approximately 50 influential military figures, including Scott Mann from Operation Pineapple, Matthew Lohmeier who asked President Trump a question, the Black Rifle Coffee guys, Eddie Gallagher, and many others. Not a single one failed to overwhelmingly support Pete Hegseth.
He also spoke with the congressmen he respects most, including Brian Mast and Cory Mills—actual warriors of this generation—and they all support Hegseth. Once Scheller realized the pulse of the community absolutely wanted Hegseth, he needed to figure out how to unify this voice.
Scheller gathered multiple petitions from various groups: a Navy SEAL petition with over 3,000 signatures, a Heritage Foundation petition, a Green Beret petition, and a Vets for Pete petition. He planned to meet with U.S. senators and their staffs on Capitol Hill, with at least 10 meetings scheduled for Wednesday. One meeting was with Senator Ricketts' office, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, to whom Scheller planned to hand these petitions and explain the warrior class's position.
Why Veterans Want Pete Hegseth: An Outside Establishment Pick
Pete Hegseth is obviously a smart guy—Princeton and Harvard educated, a great orator on Fox and Friends. But the reason veterans want him so badly, according to Scheller, is because he's an outside establishment pick. Not only is he a combat veteran from their generation, but the last two general officers who served as Secretary of Defense have literally gone from the board of the military-industrial complex to Secretary of Defense and then back.
Lloyd Austin is with Raytheon, James Mattis was with General Dynamics, and Joseph Dunford was with Lockheed Martin. The ties to the military-industrial complex represent a real problem. Even more concerning, these senior military leaders who get selected protect the status quo because their authority comes from navigating the current system. The current system is what needs to be overhauled, and that's why someone like Pete Hegseth is so important.
The Distinction Between Warriors and Highly Credentialed Generals
When Scheller made his video demanding accountability, he was relieved of his post because he did not feel the military was a mighty fighting force up against the enemies that wish to kill Americans. In his video, he pointed out that there was a Secretary of Defense who testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Force could withstand the Taliban advance. There was a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who was supposed to advise on military policy, and a Marine combatant commander—all of these people were supposed to advise.
Scheller wasn't saying America had to be in Afghanistan forever, but he asked: Did any of these leaders throw their rank on the table and say it's a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, the strategic air base, before evacuating everyone? And when they didn't think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say they completely messed up? From his position, potentially all those people died in vain if senior leaders don't own up and raise their hands to acknowledge they did not do this well.
What Pete Hegseth Can Do as Secretary of Defense
There are many people advocating to get rid of woke generals, and Scheller believes there are plenty of generals that need to be cleaned out. Historical precedent exists with George Marshall after World War I. However, just going after wokeism is actually attacking the symptom, not the root cause.
The root cause is that general officers—it takes 40 years to make a four-star general—receive subjective evaluations throughout their entire careers. Every officer is trying to please their boss and get a higher evaluation than their four peers. So the people who become four-star generals have literally pleased their boss for 40 years more than all of their peers competing for the same jobs.
It should be based on the best performers, but pleasing your boss and being the best performer diverge at certain places in a career. Anyone who has worked in a bureaucracy understands this. The reason wokeism is so prevalent is partly because of moves President Obama made, but more importantly, general officers are so fickle they care most about self-advancement and will do whatever is the topic du jour. They have no backbone.
Scheller points to the example of Carter Ham, who was in Germany when Benghazi took place. Ham was watching on screens as Americans fought outnumbered 1,000 to 1. He had eight military options and was told to stand down—and he did, because he was conditioned to please his boss. That's what all general officers do.
What Pete Hegseth needs to do, according to Scheller, is get into the military, clean out much of the archaic leadership, and then implement a performance-based system. At the end of the day, if you have the best performer—if one infantry officer goes against another infantry officer and the best one wins whatever that competition is—then all other things go away because the focus of the military should always be on lethality and winning.
How America Got Away from Lethality and Winning
The last generation that won a war was World War II, and America didn't have the National Security establishment then. World War II is when the nation literally built the National Security establishment that exists today. It went through the National Security Act of 1944, 1947, and 1950, and then it was finally structured into what exists now through the Goldwater-Nichols Act after Vietnam.
Where America really went off the rails was Vietnam. Korea was still fought by a generation of World War II veterans, and the rigid structure of the current Department of Defense was not in place yet. What happened was the creation of the military-industrial complex and a system of officers that are self-pleasing.
In Vietnam, after the loss, instead of going back and holding general officers accountable, the military let the general officers sing the song that it was the draft, the drugs, and the junior service members. What really happened was the empowerment of generals who failed. At Khe Sanh, where hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, a location was strategically important one year and then not the next year. These were huge failures for which no general officers were held accountable.
The My Lai Massacre in Vietnam resulted in only company-grade officers being held accountable—no general officers. Somewhere along the way, starting with Vietnam, the military stopped holding general officers accountable, and America needs to get back to that. Scheller believes this is a breath of fresh air with President Trump and Pete Hegseth.
The Mystery of the East Coast Drones
When asked about the drones appearing on the East Coast of the United States, Scheller stated there are only a few things the drones would be doing in the middle of the night. He believes the government absolutely knows what's going on because America has such a robust capability. First of all, they know what's happening; second, what they are doing is the deeper question.
His best guess is some type of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) detection system, or they're testing capabilities. What's disheartening is that the government and John Kirby are not being transparent about it. Scheller thinks it's another headshake in a long list of things that don't make sense. The American people probably deserve answers, especially with the coverage this is getting, but his position is that it's the government.
If it is the government, what would they possibly be doing? There are only a couple of reasons: one would be a training operation, two would be looking for somebody (though you probably wouldn't do that at night), or three, using a different type of detection capability to try and find something like a CBRN capability. If they're actually employing it, that would be his best guess. Or they're gauging the temperature of the American people and what the reactions would be. But this is absolutely something the government knows about.
The Path to Confirmation and How to Help
Scheller believes Pete Hegseth will be confirmed. Three senators are on the fence, and he thinks Joni Ernst is coming around. Looking back at Secretary Austin's confirmation, there were only two votes against him, one of them from Josh Hawley. Right now, Republicans are sitting at 53 votes and can't afford to lose a single one. For all the Republicans who voted for Lloyd Austin—who was maybe one of the worst secretaries of defense America has had in a long time—resetting the military is critical.
Recruiting rates are down significantly, and war-fighting capability is down significantly. America needs a disruptor like Pete Hegseth. To support him, people can go to AuthenticAmericans.com, which has a petition, or find one of the petitions floating around on X (formerly Twitter). All of those will make their way to Scheller.
At the end of the day, Americans should call their senators and let them know they support Pete Hegseth. The American people need Pete Hegseth, and any senator who stands in the way—especially if they're a Republican who voted for Lloyd Austin—will face a primary challenge.
