Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who heads a military with an enlisted corps that is more racially diverse than the U.S. population, has been one of the most loyal soldiers in the Trump administration’s war against diversity, equality, and inclusion, or DEI. He has helped lead President Donald Trump’s charge against transgender troops.
At an employee town hall at the Pentagon on Friday, the former Fox News television personality laid out his perspective in simple terms: “The single dumbest phrase in military history is ‘our diversity is our strength,’” Hegseth said. “It served a purpose of dividing the force.”
These efforts are in keeping with the U.S. military’s historical embrace of popular bigotry, including more than 150 years of racial segregation, sex and gender discrimination, a longtime ban on openly gay troops, and continuing underrepresentation of women and Black people at the highest levels of the armed forces.
Last month, Hegseth went so far as to launch a new task force to oversee the elimination of all Defense Department DEI offices and eradicate anything that remains of their efforts.
But almost a month after Trump launched his war on DEI, the Defense Department’s website continues to host information about diversity, equality, and inclusion — including many marquee DEI efforts launched during Trump’s first term in office.
“I doubt anyone cares very much about it, Hegseth aside.”
“We are committed to making the DoD a workplace of choice that is characterized by diversity, equality, and inclusion,” reads a 2020 Department of Defense Board on Diversity and Inclusion report, issued under Trump, which is still available at the Pentagon’s defense.gov website.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to promote an environment free from barriers that may prevent personnel from realizing their potential and rising to the highest levels of responsibility within the Department.”
Asked if the remaining webpages advocating DEI policies and news releases touting the merits of diversity initiatives were due to Pentagon intransigence or incompetence, one Defense Department official was circumspect.
“More of the latter, probably, to be honest,” the official told The Intercept on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation. “But I doubt anyone cares very much about it, Hegseth aside. Even after you write this, they probably will miss some.”
World
Legal
Gov-Politics