A Fox News commentator may have secured the position of defense secretary due to his book criticizing wokeism in the U.S. military.
Pete Hegseth, a national guardsman from Minnesota who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been outspoken in his support for President-elect Donald Trump and against DEI initiatives in the U.S. armed forces.
“For the past three years — after President Barack Obama poured the social justice foundation — the Pentagon, across all branches, has embraced the social justice message of gender equality, racial diversity, climate stupidity, and the LGBTQA+ alphabet soup in their recruiting pushes,” Hegseth wrote in his book, released in June.
Hegseth is currently a host on the weekend version of “Fox and Friends” in addition to his military background.
Hegseth has never managed a bureaucracy on the scale of the Pentagon, but his allegiance to Trump is unquestioned.
The New York Post has the story:
Fox News personality and Army National Guard member Peter Hegseth’s latest book slamming the military’s embrace of “woke” ideologies helped secure his nomination for secretary of defense by President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump shocked political observers Tuesday night by tapping the “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host — a vocal Trump supporter and advocate for exiling military leadership who enforce diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives — to serve as defense secretary.
Hegseth, who has served tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay as an infantry officer, is the author of “The War on Warriors,” a best-selling book in which the Trump nominee blames the “woke military” for the recruiting crisis facing the nation’s armed services.
“For the past three years — after President Barack Obama poured the social justice foundation — the Pentagon, across all branches, has embraced the social justice message of gender equality, racial diversity, climate stupidity, and the LGBTQA+ alphabet soup in their recruiting pushes,” Hegseth wrote in his book, released in June.
“Only one problem: There just aren’t enough lesbians from San Francisco who want to join the 82nd Airborne. Not only do the lesbians not join, but those very same ads turn off the young, patriotic, Christian men who have traditionally filled our ranks.”
Trump touted Hegseth’s book in his announcement, adding that he’s “tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”
“The book reveals the leftwing betrayal of our warriors, and how we must return our Military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability, and excellence,” wrote the president-elect, who frequently railed against “woke generals.”
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.”
In a podcast with ex-Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, Hegseth said trust between service members and their superiors has been fractured by leaders who cater to the “socially correct garbage.”
“You’ve got to fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and obviously, to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke s–t has to go,” he said in the Nov. 7 episode of “The Shawn Ryan Show.”