Tackle the Military Recruiting Crisis

• The Trump administration should drive a whole-of-government approach to address the military recruiting crisis and ensure that the nation has the quality force necessary to deter would-be adversaries and protect the nation should deterrence fail.
• The White House should use the power of the office to highlight the value and opportunity of military service.
• To secure long-term military recruiting and retention, the administration must address quality-of-life issues for service members and their families.

The second Trump administration—including the president, the secretary of defense, and the military department secretaries—is inheriting a challenging military recruitment landscape spanning multiple administrations.¹ The decline in propensity for military service among Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 is multifaceted—as is the decline in the willingness of adults of influence (including parents, teachers, coaches, counselors, and school principals) to recommend military service to the young people in their lives.² Declining trust in institutions, debates surrounding the execution of and withdrawal from the post-9/11 wars, changing attitudes regarding the necessity of college attendance, labor market opportunities, and shifting views about individual versus collective responsibilities all impact the perception of military service as a viable and desirable career path for young Americans.

Though the 2022 National Defense Strategy emphasizes the critical role of military personnel as the executors of strategy in great power competition, across the services, the U.S. military experienced four successive years of recruiting challenges.³ The recruiting challenges are the result of both declining trends in eligibility for military service and a declining propensity to serve in the military. While the Department of Defense (DoD) and the military services take the challenge seriously—as studies, policy changes, increased resources and attention to recruiting practices, and pilot program experimentation demonstrate—there are only so many factors within the Pentagon’s span of control.

The president should drive a whole-of-government approach to address the military recruiting crisis and ensure that the nation has the quality force necessary to deter would-be adversaries and protect the nation should deterrence fail. The next administration should:

Leverage the power of the bully pulpit. The military largely has been left to shoulder the burden of the recruiting crisis alone. Yet the wide-ranging factors outlined here extend well beyond the Pentagon’s purview. The White House provides a powerful platform from which to focus public attention. The president should leverage the platform to publicly recognize the value of military service, draw attention to those who are serving honorably across all ranks and services, and issue a call to action for Americans to consider military service as a viable, honorable, and desirable career path with a mission that cannot be found in other sectors. The president should further encourage leaders at the state and local levels—including governors, members of Congress, and mayors—to take ownership of the mission as well, connecting communities with those among them who are serving or who have served honorably.

The president can further use the platform to incentivize behaviors that will improve eligibility for military service, including physical fitness. This tradition is in keeping with American presidents across the span of history, including President Ronald Reagan’s addresses to the nation on incentivizing science and technology education (necessary for the U.S. military during the Cold War) and President John F. Kennedy’s establishment of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (drawing attention to physical fitness in American schools, with a goal producing a fitter society that would benefit—among other aspects of American society—military recruitment).⁴

Invest in service member quality of life. While a messaging campaign from the White House is necessary, it will not be sufficient. The president must ensure that the military as an institution is provided with the quality-of-life resources necessary to ensure that the U.S. military remains the preeminent fighting force in the world.

President Trump’s emphasis on increasing efficiency across the federal government by bringing in outside perspectives could yield improvements in service members’ quality of life. For example, private sector expertise from real estate and construction executives could bring a fresh perspective to issues of substandard housing conditions (such as mold in military barracks). Likewise, external perspectives could bring new efficiencies and may provide game-changing improvements to the permanent change of station (PCS or military relocation) process, which service members and their families experience roughly every two to three years. PCSs have long been frustrating, expensive, and inefficient, often distracting service members from their core mission.

Value the military professional ethic. The new administration also would be wise to recognize the value of the military professional ethic and civil-military norms in engagements between the administration and those in uniform moving forward. While the president retains near absolute authority in the firing of senior uniformed leaders, he must recognize that they are not partisan actors; rather, they are charged with the implementation of policy senior civilians set. Moreover, uniformed leadership’s efforts to drive out illegal behavior (such as military sexual assault) should not be framed as “woke” policies, but rather a profession-wide effort to generate the world-class warriors, leaders of character, and units necessary to fight and win the nation’s wars.⁵

Recommendations for the Trump Administration’s First 100 Days

In his first 100 days, the president has an opportunity to ensure that the U.S. military remains the preeminent fighting force in the world. As such, President Trump should:

• Give an Oval Office address emphasizing his agenda for the U.S. military over the next four years, providing examples of those currently serving honorably, and issuing a call to action.
• Task civilian and uniformed leadership to propose efficiency solutions for the military recruiting enterprise.
• Host leadership from veteran-serving organizations, military-serving organizations, and military family–serving organizations at the White House and solicit their feedback on the challenges they face and recommendations for improvement.
• Conduct site visits to military installations to observe potential quality-of-life concerns.

The current military recruiting crisis has long-term implications for the quality and strength of the U.S. military to deter and (if necessary) fight the nation’s future wars. The White House is the only platform powerful enough to address the multifaceted nature of the challenge; the next administration should take advantage of its position to reverse the negative trend.