Under the Biden administration, a staggering 8,000 service members were discharged from the military for their refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a decisive move this January, President Trump ordered the reinstatement of all service members expelled due to the COVID vaccine mandate. This order restores them to their former ranks with full back pay.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently appeared on Fox News to discuss the department’s efforts to welcome back these dedicated service members, who were unjustly treated by the previous administration.
Hegseth remarked, “We’re psyched. This is one of the promises kept from President Trump. We’ve followed through at the Defense Department. If you’re a person of conscience, a person of faith who believes you shouldn’t have to take an experimental vaccine in order to serve in our military, we will apologize to you.”
He continued, “We will recognize the wrong that’s been done. We will welcome you back with rank and back pay, and we want your service.”
“We started it as quickly as possible. As you can imagine, sometimes these things take a little bit of time to work out. All the letters are out to the folks who were pushed out, and we welcome them back as quickly and robustly as possible.”
Hegseth further pointed out the injustice, “These are some of our best and brightest. We were kicking out folks with 17 years in, 18 years in, 19 years in, saying, ‘Sorry, you won’t take the jab. You can’t serve.’ That was an outrage.”
“President Trump got elected and immediately mandated us. We’re welcoming, in fact, here at the Office of Secretary of Defense, I hope to get to meet soon a number of these troops that have lifted that. It’s changed the whole environment.”
He concluded, “You can hold your religious beliefs and that view and serve as well. That pertains to these COVID vaccines, and we welcome them. We’re glad they’re back.”
AMAZING! @PeteHegseth welcomes back service members with back pay who were discharged for refusing the vaccine: “If you are a person of conscience, a person of faith who believed you shouldn’t have to take an experimental vaccine in order to serve in our military, we will… pic.twitter.com/FszdwOIJKe
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom)
April 10, 2025
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