“…the Department of Defense is a deeply troubled institution. It has emphasized leftist politics over military readiness, recruiting was the worst in 2022 that it has been in two generations, and the Biden Administration’s profoundly unserious equity agenda and vaccine mandates have taken a serious toll.” (Project 2025, Section 2: The Common Defense, page 119, paragraph 2.)

According to the Army recruitment website, it’s not “leftist policies” that are the problem. “71% of youth do not qualify for military service because of obesity, drugs, physical and mental health problems, misconduct, and aptitude.” [Source]¹

Fact check: “While Republicans have pointed to the vaccine mandate creating a retention issue, the Defense Department says all of the military services had surpassed their retention goals for the first 10 months of the 2023 fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2022. The services have exceeded retention goals even as the military has faced challenges in recruiting new service members. [Source]².

Were people in the military dishonorably discharged, as some Republicans claim, for refusing to be vaccinated? No. “Of 3,400 troops who’ve been involuntarily separated from service for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, about 70 percent have received general discharges, service personnel chiefs said Wednesday. That characterization secures their veterans benefits and, in many cases, allows them to rejoin the military if they decide to get vaccinated. The remaining discharges have been honorable, officials told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.” [Source³]

“I can tell you there are no operational impacts across the force for readiness,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. David Ottignon told lawmakers.” [Source⁴].

Moreover, the military has required vaccines basically since George Washington. [Source]⁵ In fact, the DoD already administers 17 different vaccines to service members—outlined in the “Joint Regulation on Immunization and Chemoprophylaxis for the Prevention of Infectious Diseases.”⁶.