Watch: The New Ultra-Manly US Army Ad That Will Begin Rebuilding Our Military

In 2021, the U.S. Army released an ad in which it took over a minute and a half for a female soldier to tell her ultra-woke tale of being raised by lesbian moms, marching for equality, and playing the violin, all leading to her joining the military in part to “shatter some stereotypes.”

The ad featured lots of images, most of them done in a pastel-hued animation style, of California beaches, pride parades, ballet classes, and all-girls college housing.

In 2025, the U.S. Army released a 15-second ad, which consisted of just a few images of a gym and six words: “Strong people are harder to kill.”

If you needed a starker contrast of the military under the past two administrations, I don’t know that you could find one.

The Army ad, released Feb. 8. showed an unnamed soldier at the gym, pumping some iron.

After some suitably heavy music to go along with the heavy weights, we got those wonderful six words:

Strong Soldiers=Effective Warfighters💪 #Lethality pic.twitter.com/2iiG0dsLtk

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) February 8, 2025

And that’s already been seen 7 million times as of Wednesday.

Libs of TikTok compared it with the infamous “Emma: The Calling” ad released early in the Biden administration.

“Army recruiting ad under Biden: girl with lesbian moms ‘shattering stereotypes’ and marching for BLM and LGBTQ pride,” the caption began.

“Army recruiting ad under Trump: masculine dude working out saying strong people are harder to kill,” it continued, before adding, “AMERICA IS SO BACK” along with some stars-and-stripes emojis.

Army recruiting ad under Biden: girl with lesbian moms “shattering stereotypes” and marching for BLM and LGBTQ pride

Army recruiting ad under Trump: masculine dude working out saying strong people are harder to kill

AMERICA IS SO BACK 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/CO2n8Rnu6r

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 9, 2025

Both ads pretty much speak for themselves. Emma’s “calling” had little to do with her lethality, but it had a lot to do with her intersectionality.

Which I suppose was superb if you were coddled in a liberal bubble sometime in May 2021, safe in the knowledge that China would never move on Taiwan now that the Orange Bad Man was no longer president and the situation in Afghanistan could be wound down safely.

Also, Russia would know who was boss — because, as we all know, Putin viewed Trump as a Muscovite pushover — and no moves would be made on, oh, say, Ukraine.

The biggest problem in the military, in fact, was not enough diversity — not enough trans soldiers, not enough drag shows on bases, not enough people investigating “white rage,” all of that. That was our military’s most pressing issue.

A few months later, things — you may remember — began to change. Drastically. And not for the better. Emma’s “calling,” alas, did not stop it, even if she did “shatter some stereotypes.”

Perhaps we’ll never know why that didn’t stop the Afghan pullout disaster or the invasion of Ukraine or even juice recruitment numbers. (I have a hunch on all three, but alas, nothing dispositive.)

Fast forward four years. Weights. Muscles. “Strong people are harder to kill.” Period. The military isn’t a medium for social change under MAGA. It’s there to kill our enemies and keep Americans safe.

I also have a hunch on which one will end up working better for us in the long run. TL;DR version, to quote from earlier: “AMERICA IS SO BACK.” Agreed.

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