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The Pentagon is bracing for sweeping policy changes under the incoming Trump administration, and some high-level officers could find their careers on the chopping block.
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to lead the Defense Department – an iconoclast whose pick roiled the defense industrial base.
With Hegseth, the Trump administration is expected to undo diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) accommodations and training within the military.
"If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force or the United States Marines. Sorry," Trump said at an Aug. 21 rally in Asheboro, North Carolina.
"The military brass that led these absurd and insulting initiatives will likewise be removed, and they will no longer be in command. They’re going to be gone, gone so fast."
TRUMP NOMINATES PETE HEGSETH TO SERVE AS DEFENSE SECRETARY
Longtime generals and high-level officers at the Pentagon could find their jobs under threat – even those who don’t typically qualify as political appointees.
"Well, first of all, you got to fire, you know, you got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs," Hegseth said on the "Shawn Ryan Show" podcast last week.
"Any general that was involved – general, admiral, whatever – that was involved in any of the DEI woke s**t, it’s got to go," he added.
Hegseth also wrote in his recent book, "The War on Warriors": "Our generals are not ready for this moment in history. Not even close. The next President of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired."
"At the Pentagon, you can fire generals. Unlike, say, the CIA or the Department of Justice, where it’s hard to fire senior officials, because they’re protected," said former Rep. Chris Stewart, who has been consulting the transition team on Department of Defense matters.
The transition team is considering a draft executive order that establishes a "warrior board" of retired senior military personnel who would have the power to review three- and four-star officers and recommend removal of any who are unfit for leadership, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
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Trump may quickly score favor with social conservatives and defense hawks by rolling back an executive order President Joe Biden signed that lifted a ban on transgender people from serving in the military.
Transgender people were allowed to begin openly serving in the military in 2016 under an executive order of the Obama administration. But in 2017, Trump announced he would reimpose that ban.
"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump said in a social media post at the time.
Trump’s ban ordered the discharge of anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and prompted a flurry of lawsuits.
The Trump Pentagon is also expected to roll back a Biden-era policy allowing troops to obtain leave and reimbursement if they need to leave the state where they are stationed to seek an abortion.
The policy is rarely ever taken advantage of – the Department of Defense found that only 12 people used it over the course of six months from August to December 2023.
Conservatives have pushed to block the policy since Biden adopted it after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Pentagon requested funding to the tune of $114 million for DEI initiatives in 2024. That money was to be used for "programs and initiatives aimed at furthering DEIA, and incorporating DEIA values, objectives, and considerations in how we do business and execute our missions." Expect a major undoing of diversity initiatives.
"DEI amplifies differences, creates grievances, and excludes anyone who won’t bow down to the cultural Marxist revolution ripping through the Pentagon. Forget DEI — the acronym should be DIE or IED. It will kill our military worse than any IED ever could," Hegseth wrote in Chapter 8.
"The Left isn’t just interested in purging Trump supporters. Their ideology is based on marginalizing whatever’s normal, because they think ‘normal’ is always oppressive. By their logic, the military runs on the most normal and most oppressive thing of all: strong men. Just being a guy who hits the gym means you’re oppressing everyone around you," he wrote.
"A big reason for fewer training accidents is – less training. More time than ever is being spent on social justice PowerPoint moralizing – and meeting those metrics in today’s military is the most important standard to meet," he wrote. "Every unit knows that social justice, trans, gender, woke training is the top priority. Not doing this training, or not doing it properly, will get a commander or junior leader fired. Not doing real field training becomes secondary."
