President Donald Trump has frequently bragged about the recruitment numbers of the U.S. armed forces during his second term.
However, they were already on the rise before he took office, something the president neglects to mention. Trump has argued that his reelection has spurred a new drive for recruitment.
During a visit to Saudi Arabia last week, Trump said, “After years of military recruiting shortfalls, enlistments in the U.S. armed forces are now the highest in 30 years because there is such an incredible spirit in the United States of America.”
But military records show that enlistments began rising again after going down during the pandemic long before Election Day in November. Numbers have continued to rise during Trump’s second term, but experts say that the “Trump bump,” in the words of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is likely because of reforms to recruitment efforts instituted under former President Joe Biden.
Trump has claimed enlistments have hit modern highs, but publicly available information reveals that the military is attracting fewer recruits than previously this decade, CBS News noted.
"Since Nov. 5, 2024, the U.S. military has seen the highest recruiting percentage of mission achieved in 30 years," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on April 29.
Reports from the Department of Defense available to the public show that recruiters are meeting their goals for the year, but their monthly reports, which have only been published online since 2016, also reveal that annual targets are often adjusted, meaning that comparisons with the past aren’t as significant.
The Army didn’t reach its goal for the fiscal years 2022 and 2023 as the job market was tight. The military branch subsequently cut its target from 65,000 to 55,000 active-duty soldiers for last year. Reaching that number, it’s now aiming for 61,000 recruits this year. The changing goals make it more difficult to claim that the recruiting efforts have set new records.
While active military enlistments have increased year over year, they still remain below recent highs.
March is the most recent month for which recruitment numbers are available. About 13,000 people enlisted during that month, a rise of almost 50 percent compared to the previous year. However, it was lower than the 15,000 enlistments that occurred in 2018 during Trump’s first stint in the White House. The number includes all military branches apart from the Coast Guard, which the Department of Homeland Security leads.
The highest monthly number during Trump’s second term came in January — he was inaugurated on January 20 — when 15,597 recruits were handed dates for basic training. Even higher figures came in January 2018 (16,800) and in August last year during the Biden presidency (24,000).
However, today’s figures are far below those seen a few decades ago. For instance, more than 220,000 people enlisted in 1990. Defense Department figures show that the numbers declined following the end of the Cold War and haven’t recovered.
Trump has also made the false claim that enlistments sank to record lows during Biden’s final year as commander in chief.
"Just about a year ago, it was a big story, front page of every paper all over the world, that nobody wanted to enlist in our military," said Trump.
But Defense data reveals that military recruitment was on the rise following declines during the Covid-19 pandemic, rising in 2023 and 2024, when 146,473 people signed active-duty contracts, about 12,000 more than the year before, CBS News noted.
Trump has also claimed that enlistments were at a record low before his election, but 10,993 people enlisted in October last year, the month before Election Day, an increase of 60 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
Those who study military enlistments told CBS News that the continued rise is likelier due to new recruitment strategies and changes in compensation rather than the new president.
Katherine Kuzminski at the Center for a New American Security points to programs put in place during the Biden administration, such as the Army’s Future Soldier Prep Course, which was launched in 2022. She also cited the Navy’s Future Sailor Prep Course, launched the following year. In 2025, about a quarter of the Army’s enlistments took place via a prep course.
"It's harder to convince someone to be interested in military service than it is to train them to a standard," she told CBS News.
