Under Joe Biden, approximately 8,000 service members were discharged from the military for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
In January 2025, President Trump ordered a full reinstatement to any service member who was expelled from the armed forces due to the COVID vaccine mandate, restoring them to their former rank with full pay.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth joined Fox News to discuss efforts to welcome back these service members who were discarded and treated so badly by the Biden administration.
Hegseth stated, “We’re psyched. This is one of the made promises kept from President Trump. We have followed through at the Defense Department. If you are a person of conscience, a person of faith who believe that you shouldn’t have to take an experimental vaccine in order to serve in our military, we will apologize to you.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Watch:
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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