Fired Up Pete Hegseth speaks at space company

Well Fadi, thank you so much. Thank you so much for that incredible introduction. Thank you both for welcoming us here to your incredible facility. How are we doing today, Patriots? You know, it always works the other way. I come here to motivate you and you end up motivating us. On behalf of the entire War Department, we came here with a simple message for all of you. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for having the backs ruthlessly defend our freedom every single day. Because what you're building right here on this factory floor with your own two hands is critical to the 21st century arsenal of freedom. You are the Patriots ensuring our warriors are never in a fair fight. You give them the tools to project absolute lethality against the enemy wherever they are and whenever we need to. We cannot do this without you. You built an incredible spacecraft. The Wright Brothers' first flight was just a little over a century ago. What on earth would they make of this? How could this be possible, they would say, in such a short amount of time? Well, I'll tell you through pure unadulterated American ingenuity and competition. Through the blood, sweat, and tears of the best workforce in the world and the best workforce in human history. American software engineers, assembly mechanics, innovators of all kinds working to deliver peace through strength on behalf of their fellow citizens. Because for generations, the battle was fought on land, in the air, and subsea. But today, the ultimate high ground, the single most decisive battlefield of this century, and the centuries to come, is hundreds of miles above our. Make no mistake, this fight for space is the fight for the future of the world as we know it. And right here in Colorado, in the instruments of absolute and unquestioned American space dominance, which is what we require. You, the builders, the engineers, the technicians of Sierra Space, are riding the next much in Washington DC, especially in some ways in the aerospace industry, it's a giant swamp. A cozy club of over-budget prime conglomerate, the American people, and our warfighters. They moved at a snail's pace, led by CEOs who cared more about their stock options and golden parachutes than about delivering for the men and women on the front lines. They got slow, they got comfortable, and they got fat, selling us yesterday's technology tomorrow. For decades, before President Trump, we were betrayed by a corrupt, self-serving, bipartisan consensus in Washington. A globalist so-called elite who told us that it was progress to gut your industrial heartland and ship our factories and jobs overseas. While they shipped their champagne in Davos, they lectured you and me, the American workers, that American manufacturing was a thing of the past. They told us that the global adversaries, as the very parts that fueled our military, was somehow to our benefit. The so-called experts in their ivory towers and the scribblers at the Wall Street Journal all read from the same script, outsourcing is the future, they proclaimed. Let them tell that to the workers and the patriots of Sierra space. Let them say that to the machinists who shape metal with American hands. Let them say that to the technicians who wire the complex machines for our arsenal of freedom, like the Dream Chaser, the light vortex engine, the critical satellite that serves the eyes and ears of the cosmos. Let them say that to the programmers and the engineers who are out-thinking and out-building every competitor on earth, nation's survival, your kids and grandkids and mine. You are every single day that when we unleash American industry, when we finally have a competitive patriotic spirit, America always went in. Make no mistake about it, it's to be in an ongoing, never-ending war of attrition against the Pentagon bureaucracy to unleash you so that you can unleash our war fighters. More excuses right here, said we are in a war of attrition against our own bureaucracy for the next three years and we intend to win it. We will outworry single day, no more delays, no more allowing wealthy executives to line up their pockets with stock buybacks while the factory floor crumbles, tools that they need. We are done sacrificing our industrial power and national sovereignty for the profits of a tiny disconnected elite in Washington. We are equipping our warriors for the future right here, right now, with parts made in the USA and we're doing it at lightspeed. You see, President Trump's entire agenda is built on a few core constants, Americans first, and that means we protect your jobs, your security and your family's future before we think about any foreign country or globalist peacekeeping project. We invest in factories in Colorado, it means American strength is forged by American steel and built by American workers, full stop. And let's be honest, what it means for you, it should be more money in your pockets, higher wages, a better, more affordable, the golden age of American manufacturing demands that the people share in that very same prosperity or compensation that creates a better life for you and your family today and a more secure future for our children tomorrow. Trump's second principle is peace through strength. At the War Department, that's our job, the strength department. Our goal is deterrence, so absolute that our adversaries tremble at the very thought of even challenging us. And space is the ultimate arena where that strength will be proven. Space controls the fight, it's that simple. And President Trump's announcement of a 1.5 investment in our national security in 2027 sent a shockwave around the world, but we're not messing around. We will spend every dime of it wisely, already doing so. And as I'm sure many of you have already heard, even before that, the one big beautiful bill unprecedented billions of dollars in investments in America's capability. Sending the demand signal industry needs to see that we are investing and investing big. Speaking of which, I want to take a moment to recognize two of Colorado's joining us today who helped make this stuff possible. Representative Jeff Frank appreciate their support work and getting that one big beautiful bill to the president's desk for signature. Because with that signature came a massive $25 billion down payment on the golden revolutionary shield of space-based weapons and sensors. A vigilant constellation of next generation sensors and satellites that will see every threat from every group of space-based interceptors ready to neutralize any ballistic missile, any hypersonic weapon, any drone long before it threatens our homeland. That's how we establish complete and total orbital supremacy. That's how we guarantee the safety and security of the American people for generations to come. And we will continue to look for partners who can deliver the most advanced space infrastructure and deliver it fast. Capabilities like the ones you're building right as we speak. Because we cannot afford to have a fair fight in space. I'm not interested in orbital equity. My job is to provide sometimes at midnight. President Trump's is just raw common sense. Common sense tells us that we cannot project power from a hollowed out industrial base. Common sense tells us that our unity is our strength, not what our faces look like. Common sense tells us that in order to win, we're on this freedom tour. We're sending a clear, sustained demand signal to American industry that we want the best and we need it yesterday. That the era of weakness is over. The disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. The preventable war in Ukraine. The invasion of our southern border. Those days are gone. From day one of the Trump administration, the War Department re-established deterrence and if you challenge the United States of America, you will pay a terrible price. If you mess around with us, if you want to try to do something bad to us, we're going to do things to you that you have never felt before. Just last month, a raid so sophisticated, so none of this is possible without the talent and precision that begins on factory floors just like this one. You are the patriots who pour your sweat and your genius into the systems that give us the overwhelming, soul-crushing advantage over our enemies. But it's still not fast enough. Trust me, I hear about it from President Trump every time I'm in the Oval Office. He'd go faster. So under President Trump, we are lighting a fire under the old way of doing business. We're flipping the status quo on its head. Urgency is our new currency. Speed, efficiency, and ferocious competition. We're holding the big defense contractors to the highest possible standard just as we do our warfighters. President Trump's executive order on January 7th put an end to the excuses. No more monopolies. No more waiting 15 years for the perfect solution that never arrives. No more egregious executive bonuses while falling behind on your projects. No more prioritizing Wall Street over the warfighter. The companies we invest in must invest in themselves and put their workers and warriors first. Arsenal freedom. An audience out here that lives the spirit of that executive order every day. Patriots committed to the highest standard. Patriots committed to me in America. Because in the end, I ultimately don't care what company names on the side of satellites, on the side of engines, or on the side of space planes. The only thing we ask ourselves is, is it the best? Can it scale, and can we scale it fast enough? Today, that if you build the best, if you build the fastest, and at cost for the American taxpayer, you're going to win. If you don't, then I'll make sure you lose. The promise of President Trump's War Department. I'm not invested in a single company. Don't care. Don't care who wins. It doesn't matter how many lobbyists you have in Washington, so that everyone can compete. Not just the ones that have been sitting at the trough of the Pentagon for decades. Everyone has an opportunity to compete so that we can get the best. And your leadership gets it. Your leadership gets it. And for the other guys, some of the big guys, it's taken them a while. But they're getting there. They, like you, know that this can't be about dividends. It's got to be about dominance. Sierra Space took that demand signal for speed and innovation, and you are running with it. We appreciate that. I said it once, and I'll say it again. We're here because of you, because of the best workforce in the world. Innovators, builders, across all services in the front, and they're leading the charge with these twisted systems that you provide. So our message to every company, this one, and every company in America, large and small, is join us. Take risks. Today, the president demands that in your plants and your people, and that our warfighters have what they need when they need it. So we're committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with you, because we can't deter the next conflict. We'll ultimately be won by the frontier of space without the skill, the grit, and the patriotism that I know exists in this room. Built right here at Sierra Space by all of you. The systems you build are more than just complex hardware and software. They are promised to every soldier, every sailor, every airman, marine, and guardian, that they will always have the ultimate high ground. You know, after Operation Absolute Resolve was completed, the world, we're having an indicted individual of the most fortified convoy inside the most fortified base inside the capital city, halfway around our hemisphere, in the middle of the night before they even knew we were there. Something no other country could do. And I remember sitting at the podium the next morning with the president and others. I would just say, you just witnessed the guts, gallantry, and glory of the American warrior. They came back home. They did something incredible. They came back safe. And what protected them, and what gave them the information they needed, was American dominance. The kind of dominance you are building in America. And over the radio, he said, over the radio, good luck men, and Godspeed. Whether you make your own luck, great at what you do, but I wish you Godspeed as well. Because we need the skills that you're honing here, to ensure that you have everything you need in that process. Again, a war of attrition against the bureaucracy that opens up the aperture so that everyone in your report, to serve you, they're here to serve the troops. And if we get that right, they get what they need to deter. And if they need to fight, they get what they need to fight to win. Thank you. Thank you for being in the fight with us. For standing shoulder to shoulder with us. Keep building. Keep innovating. And go fast. God bless you and our warriors and our great republic. Thank you very much.