‘The woke stuff will be gone’: Trump confirmed his main plan for the military is to insult women

Donald Trump’s decision to hire a Secretary of Defense with questionable qualifications suggests his main plan for the military is to insult women and remove them from combat zones.

Trump has begun selecting his new cabinet, and the choices have raised some eyebrows. He appears to be prioritizing Trump loyalist and extremist over qualified candidates, picking a border czar who promises to deport entire families and a Secretary of Homeland Security who is most well-known for killing a puppy. One of his most perplexing choices was when he named Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host, as his Secretary of Defense. Before his right-wing pundit career, he served in the military, joining the Minnesota Army National Guard, and was awarded two Bronze Stars for his service. While his military career is an advantage, not everyone who serves in the military is capable of overseeing the entire nation’s armed forces.

Hegseth’s military career is quite average compared to that of the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, who has a four-star general ranking, a Silver Star, and five Defense Distinguished Service Medals. Not only that, but instating a right-wing pundit as the Secretary of Defense doesn’t appear to align with the fact that the military is supposed to be apolitical. However, Trump isn’t looking for a qualified Secretary of Defense; he’s looking for someone who will purge the military of so-called “wokeness.”

Pete Hegseth advocates for removing women from combat

Rather than being concerned about running an efficient military, Trump and Hegseth are concerned about “woke stuff.” During a rally last summer, Trump promised if he won the presidency, “The woke stuff will be gone within a period of 24 hours. I can tell you.” Hegseth has shared a similar viewpoint that the military needs to be purged of wokeness. According to him, the “woke stuff” is simply allowing women to serve in combat.

Despite conservative meltdowns, women have been serving in combat for over a decade. There’s no reason why women should be barred from combat if they meet the same minimum standards as men. Refusing to allow women in combat closes off hundreds of thousands of potential military positions to them and further prevents them from having equal opportunities. Even with the military allowing women to serve in combat, it has a long way to go to gender equality, especially since women face higher levels of sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination than male military members. Yet, Hegseth wants to take things backward and bar women from combat zones again.

Recently, he stated, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” According to him, women can’t be as efficient as men in combat, even if they meet the exact same standards as men, simply because they are women.

Hegseth has also criticized veterans for using the benefits they’ve earned from their service and claiming those who do so don’t have “personal integrity.”

Many have also pointed out the hypocrisy of Trump hiring an unqualified man as Secretary of Defense despite conservatives constantly touting the lie that DEI initiatives lead to the hiring of unqualified individuals. Despite conservatives insisting that Hegseth serving as a Major in the National Guard somehow makes him capable of running the most powerful military in the world, there’s little evidence to suggest he’s qualified for this role. However, he has the privilege of anti-wokenness and unquestioned loyalty to Trump on his side.