Donald Trump takes credit for military recruitment turnaround that started with Joe Biden

President Donald Trump said military recruitment is soaring early in his second presidency, and it’s because of his efforts to rid the government of "wokeness."

"Our service members won't be activists and ideologues," Trump said in his March 4 speech to Congress. "They will be fighters and warriors," he said, praising Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as not being "big into the woke movement."

"I'm pleased to report that in January, the U.S. Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years, and that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services," Trump said. "What a difference. And you know, it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite. We couldn't recruit anywhere.

"We couldn't recruit. Now we're having the best results just about that we've ever had. What a tremendous turnaround."

Several readers asked us by text and email after the speech whether Trump’s claim is true.

Recruitment is up, but it’s been going up for months, well before Trump took office Jan. 20. Military experts said it’s too early to say how Trump has or hasn’t influenced military recruitment just six weeks into his term. Various factors have a bigger influence on recruitment, including the civilian economy and military recruitment programs.

The recruitment process takes weeks from first contact to enlistment, said David Segal, a University of Maryland sociology professor and expert on military recruitment. 

"The peak in Army recruiting was in late August 2024 — months before the election," Segal said. "In short, Trump shouldn't get credit for processes that preceded his election."

RELATED: Fact-checking President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress

The U.S. armed forces has six branches: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy and Space Force. 

The Defense Department said in October that recruitment rose from 200,000 in fiscal year 2022-23, to 225,000 in fiscal year 2023-24 — a 12.5% increase while President Joe Biden was still in office. 

Federal fiscal years begin Oct. 1 and end Sept. 30; fiscal year 2025 began under Biden, on Oct. 1, 2024.

The Defense Department released fiscal 2025 recruitment data, for October through December, months in which Trump was not commander in chief. It shows that the military is on track to meet or exceed its recruitment goals.

Subhed: A closer look at the Army’s efforts in recent years 

When we asked the White House for evidence to support Trump’s claim, a spokesperson sent us a Feb. 4 X post by the U.S. Army that said the branch had its "most productive December in 15 years by enlisting 346 Soldiers daily." 

Hegseth posted a similar statement that day: "In December 2024, the @USArmy had its best recruiting number in 12 years. In January 2025, the Army hit its best recruiting number in 15 YEARS."

We could not confirm Hegseth’s statement about January data, nor could we confirm either month was a 12- or 15-year record. The most recent monthly cumulative data on the Defense Department’s website is from December, and the data goes back to 2016. December data showed that the Army reached about 109% of its goal. 

We asked the Army press office to send us evidence showing January data, but the office sent us a link to Army recruiting data through fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, 2024.

Christine Wormuth, Biden’s Army secretary who left in January, told PolitiFact that the Army took new steps in fall 2023 to professionalize its recruitment workforce and expand its focus beyond high school graduates. 

In 2022, the Army launched a "future soldier" prep course to help recruits meet fitness or academic standards. 

"As early as February 2024 we started seeing much higher numbers than what we had been seeing in 2023," Wormuth said. 

In 2024, about 25% of new recruits took the course. In 2023, the Navy launched its own prep course.

Wormuth told Fox News in February that many of the recruits were women.

"Right now, 16% of the overall Army is women," Wormuth said. "And so, having a year where almost 20% of the new recruits are women is a notable increase."

She added that 2024 was the highest ever Hispanic recruitment year.

The Army also received training from corporate industry leaders on talent acquisition and revived the 1980s branding campaign "Be All That You Can Be," Fox News reported. 

Days before Trump took office, Wormuth told The Associated Press that the Army was on pace to bring in 61,000 young people by the end of the fiscal year in September, which would be the second straight year of meeting recruitment goals. 

The Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, Air Force and Space Force said in fall that they met or exceeded recruitment goals for fiscal year 2024.

The Navy’s 2024 effort marked "its most significant recruiting achievement in 20 years," the branch said. The trend continued during the first four months of the 2025 fiscal year, the branch said in February.

The Coast Guard said in September it was the first time it met its recruitment goal since 2017. 

The Marine Corps Recruiting Command told PolitiFact that recruiters outperformed the first five months of fiscal year 2025 when compared with the same timeframe the previous year.

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President Donald Trump posted that “the Chiefs’ Super Bowl performance was a disaster” and “too focused on DEI nonsense.”

The biggest driver of enlistments is the civilian economy, said Peter Feaver, Duke University professor and former member of the National Security Council during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. 

"When jobs are plentiful on the outside, as was the case late in the Biden years, recruitment gets more difficult," Feaver said. 

Peter Mansoor, a retired Army colonel, wrote in a January article for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University that since the inception of the all-volunteer military in 1973, recruitment has risen and fallen in conjunction with civilian employment. 

"When economic activity dipped, young men and women could find employment at decent wages by joining the armed services," Mansoor wrote. But in recent years, "America’s strong economy has disincentivized enlistment in the armed forces."

As the Defense Department touted its improved numbers in December, it said concerns remained "about the overall recruiting environment."

Trump has faulted efforts to expand diversity, equity or inclusion and LGBTQ+ friendly policies as affecting recruitment. In his first month, he reinstated the transgender military ban and revoked DEI efforts across the federal government. 

Republicans have linked "wokeism" to military recruitment woes, blaming Pentagon policies on diversity training, time off and travel allowances for abortion access, and health care coverage for transgender members. But military experts said factors other than "wokeness" are to blame.

Young Americans have fewer ties to friends or family members who have served in the military, Katie Helland, a military official who works on recruitment, said in October.

Another factor is that about 77% of people ages 17 to 24 require a waiver to serve because of disqualifications.

It’s possible some American youth are more motivated to serve under Trump, but there is no definitive survey data showing the new administration is driving this enlistment trend, said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Center for a New American Security’s military, veterans, and society program.

Center for a New American Security’s survey data has shown "that perceptions of social policy in the military are more likely to change the preferences of influencers and not actual enlistees," Kuzminski said. (Influencers in this context include parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches and clergy.)

Long-standing federal data shows the leading factors keeping young people from the military are fear of physical injury or death (62%), possibility of PTSD (58%), and relocating far away from family (54%). 

The main drivers for military service include pay (51%) and educational benefits (44%).

Trump said, "All armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever" because of Trump policies, and "it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite." 

Trump is wrong that the enlistment trend months ago was "exactly the opposite" of a recent upswing. Military recruitment rose during the most recent fiscal year, while Biden was president, and continued during his final months in office. 

Record recruitment numbers for January and February are plausible, based on trends from several months. Neither the military nor Trump administration officials provided data.

Survey responses show the largest detractors for joining the military are fear of injury or death, the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder and relocating away from family — not the DEI and LGBTQ+ friendly policies that Trump and Republicans often cite. 

We rate this statement Mostly False. 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check.