Hegseth has said Trump should fire chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff to "course correct"
From CNN's Haley Britzky
Roughly a third of the military’s most senior officers are “actively complicit” in the perceived politicization of the US military, Fox News host and veteran Pete Hegseth — who was announced Tuesday as Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense in his new administration— said earlier this year.
Speaking on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” in June about his book, Hegseth railed against what he described as “woke, CRT, DEI things, gender stuff” that has “seeped into” the military. Asked what percentage of the roughly 800 general and flag officers “are not up to the standards of the old days,” Hegseth ultimately said a third.
“I would say over a third are actively complicit, and then you have a lot of grumblers who are sort of going along, trying to resist the nonsense as much as they can, but they’re not fundamentally changing it,” he said.
While Hegseth did not provide many specifics as to what policies he took issue with, he did criticize the integration of women into combat units, saying it was the result of political pressure on the military.
And just last week, in a separate podcast interview, Hegseth said that in order to “course correct” the Pentagon, the incoming Trump administration would need to fire Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown and any senior leader “involved in any of the DEI woke sh*t.”
Brown became chairman in 2023 after serving as the first Black Air Force chief of staff — a position he was nominated for by then-President Trump.
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, said Wednesday he doesn’t have any concerns about Hegseth’s qualifications to run the Department of Defense.