Former President Trump issued a stark warning about the “woke” U.S. military during an exclusive interview with “Fox & Friends Weekend,” and vowed to fire left-wing military leaders amid criticism the Pentagon faces for honoring Pride Month.
“I got to know the real combat generals. There’s no ‘vigilant’ person in the military. There are ‘vigilant’ people at the top,” Trump said during an interview with hosts Pete Hegseth, Will Kain and Rachel Campos-Duffy.
“They want people to be aware, but these people are not meant to be aware. I would fire them. You can’t have a vigilant military. You said it very well… You need people who want to win. They want to win the war. That’s their goal, to win the war, not to be aware… But we have a great military.”
Army launches programme to make overweight recruits permanent to tackle recruitment crisis
The official Facebook page for the US Navy SEALs and the Naval Special Warfare Command was mocked this weekend for its interaction with US Naval Special Warfare Command personnel. The start of Pride month.
President Biden (right) shakes hands with Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who left his post last year. (Nathan Howard/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The post sparked a fierce backlash when it was highlighted on the popular “Libs of TikTok” page on Twitter known as X. The post had no caption and included an image with a rainbow design that read, “NSW. Dignity. Service. Respect. Equality. Pride.”
“These are not the colors I care about. The colors I care about are red, white and blue,” Fox News’ Pete Hegseth told Ainsley Earhardt on Monday.
“We all wore green together. We all bleed red together. Who we slept with is not the issue… The issue is how good are you at your job? And are you getting promoted because you’re the best rifleman, or you’re the best pilot, or you’re the best tank commander? Are you first at this job or are you first at that job? And that’s the story I tell over and over again.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right at the top of the stairs, hosts a welcoming ceremony for Kenyan President William Ruto at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
TikTok’s Libs shared the post with an X on Saturday, writing, “The Navy SEALs have woken up. Our elite special forces. This is awesome.”
The post sparked a sharp reaction from critics who were concerned about how the military’s priorities had changed. This affected military preparedness Because recruitment is still a struggle in almost all branches.
“I’ve talked to dozens of actively serving men and women, junior recruits to high-ranking officers, and they all said the same thing,” Hegseth said. “We’re walking on eggshells. There’s no accountability. Standards are being lowered, slowly being brought into conformity with the conscious Marxist ideologies that Democrat politicians have pushed into the Pentagon. The Pentagon should be the world’s greatest meritocracy. Instead, it’s a social experiment.”
Meanwhile, the Army, Air Force and Navy all missed their recruitment targets last year, sparking concern among critics who blame far-left ideologues who prioritize “woke” agendas over military preparedness.
The Army announced earlier this year that the service cutting off its power The reorganization will increase the force by about 24,000, which it says will help the service fight future wars.
The roughly 5% job cuts would mainly affect vacant positions, not actual soldier ranks, and would relate to counterterrorism positions, cavalry squadrons, Stryker brigade combat teams, infantry brigade combat teams and security force assistance brigades, which are used to train foreign militaries.
In the new year, the US Army falls 41,000 short of its 2023 recruitment target facing a recruitment crisis, A Pentagon official said in December.
“A commander-in-chief must be focused on winning the wars we fight, and that means establishing leadership at the Pentagon that is absolutely focused on that,” Hegseth said.
“Unfortunately, the incentive for generals under the Biden administration and the Obama administration was to conform to the ideologies of left-wing politicians who were instituting things in the Pentagon that had nothing to do with winning the war.”
“What’s your gender? What’s your race? DEI, CRT, are we driving electric tanks? Are we working with the military to save the climate? None of those things were important to the men and women I served with. We were focused on succeeding at the mission we were given,” he added.
“The Pentagon likes to say that our diversity is our strength. What nonsense. In the military, our diversity is not our strength. Our unity is our strength, and we need a commander in chief who understands that. Donald Trump certainly understands that. Being aware of that will go a long way in making sure we’re on top of the world.”
Fox News’s Stephen Soares, Anders Hagstrom and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
