Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have just shown America what governing under a second Trump administration might look like.
On May 22, the committee put hedge pruners to the thicket of new, left-leaning rules put in place by Biden’s Defense Commissioners. The first things to go through the wood chipper were diversity, equity and inclusion training, climate change activism and promotions based on nothing but merit.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the American left isn’t all that interested in the Department of Defense, but don’t be fooled: the former War Department remains the last and greatest jewel in the federal government’s crown.
Washington, DC, is a city of Democrats, where Capitol Hill neighbors compete to see who can put the most Ukrainian flags, “Cease Now!” signs, and coexistence stickers in one yard. 92.15 percent voted for Biden in the 2020 election, and Washington’s federal workforce is as ideologically diverse as NPR’s newsroom.
The memos were written on IBM Selectrics as the left took over the Departments of State, Energy, Education, and Transportation. Republicans finally began to wake up to this permanent liberal takeover of government in 2013 when it was revealed that the IRS was deliberately targeting conservatives. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 showed the lengths to which officials at previously trusted agencies such as the FBI might go to thwart conservatives. Fast forward to 2024, and the FBI has labeled red-hatted MAGA enthusiasts as extremists, and its oversight agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, has abandoned due process in its pursuit of Republican presidential candidates.
Until recently, many believed the last safe haven for Washington conservatives was the Pentagon, a lonely outpost in a sea of blue hair, pronouns and face masks.
With an annual budget of $850 billion and 2 million employees, the Pentagon remains the largest discretionary item in the federal budget. Unfortunately, that sheer amount of money has made it a prime target for the Biden team.
When Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and Deputy Secretary Kash Patel emerged from the Pentagon’s riverside entrance on January 20, 2021, the Biden administration walked in with a dream sheet filled with liberal priorities. First weekNow, the service has opened up to transgender members. Previously, you couldn’t serve in the Army if you had flat feet, or fly a jet with less than 20/20 vision, but under Biden’s Pentagon, it’s now okay for anyone to have $30,000 in “gender reassignment surgery.”
Next, on February 5, 2021, Secretary of State Lloyd Austin Withdraw all troops In an effort to root out “extremism” within the organization, the “ceasefire” forced everyone in the department to take a four-hour lecture that closely resembled DEI training. After millions of wasted work hours, report The Institute for Defense Analyses report concluded that there is “no evidence” to conclude that the rate of extremists within the Pentagon is higher than in the country as a whole.
The blows continued. The Army was forced to pursue battery-powered vehicles (similar to the Obama Administration’s outlandish idea of a “Great Green Fleet” biofueled Navy). The Air Force approved allowing airmen to sign their emails with their preferred pronouns. Diversity, equity and inclusion chiefs were brought in, including Kerissa Wing, a self-described “woke” DEI chief who has made derogatory remarks about white “follx.” Lloyd Austin himself vowed to turn the Pentagon into an abortion travel agency, risking the promotions of hundreds of generals and generals to ensure that any service member (or dependent) can have an abortion on demand, at any point in their pregnancy, for any reason. Oh, and her three weeks of extra leave and associated travel expenses were to be paid for by taxpayers.
Amid all this social engineering, the country’s military position began to stabilise within the first six months. Biden’s disaster in Afghanistan came in 2021. Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Middle East escalated in 2023. And all the while, as Americans watched in shock and disbelief, military recruitment suffered. Public confidence in the military, once the nation’s most respected institution, eroded. The lowest price in 20 years That will happen in 2023, according to Gallup.
House Republicans have called the military’s focus on lethal force “focused” on destroying property and killing people, but much of their effort is likely to be blocked by Democrats once the bill reaches the Senate. But with the Senate increasingly Republican following the November election and Donald Trump leading in the polls, this year’s House bill could be a harbinger of what’s to come next spring.
Morgan Murphy is a former Pentagon spokesman, National Security Advisor to the U.S. Senate, and Afghanistan veteran.
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