Army General May Have Violated Military Code With Contemptuous Op-Ed

By Victoria Manning | Restoration News

Brigadier General Kareem Montague’s public rebuke of Secretary Hegseth exposes exactly the problem the War Department is trying to fix.

It’s no secret that Harvard University pushes racial discrimination and pushes anti-American ideologies. Earlier this year, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth cut military ties with the leftist bastion, pointing out that “Harvard is woke; the War Department is not.”

He’s right to sever the military’s relationship with an institution that’s drifted from training warriors to partnering with adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party.

Yet the move prompted one general officer to undermine Sec. Hegseth’s directive, possibly violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Army Brigadier General Kareem Montague, in a recent Washington Post op-ed, blasted Hegseth’s directive for “undermining American values—as if those bright, brave patriots need protection.” Without Harvard, he suggests, our military will be led by “fools” and “cowards.”

“Elite universities and the military should be friends, not foes,” he writes, yet “the fight between universities and the military is bringing the country perilously close.”

That totally ignores how far left Ivy League schools have drifted in recent decades, a fact Harvard faculty often brag about.

Montague points out that George Washington once thanked Harvard for its service to the nation as evidence of the university’s importance.

What’s missing? That the Harvard of 1789 was a Christian school and seminary turning out classically educated leaders and ministers, not godless social justice warriors.

Montague is currently an exchange officer stationed at the Land Force and Operations Command in Lille, France.

Not only did he publicly show contempt for his superior’s decision, but apparently undermined military discipline and good order while representing America in a foreign country.

The UCMJ Article 88 prohibits any commissioned officer from using contemptuous words against the Secretary of War. The military defines contemptuous as “insulting, rude, and disdainful conduct, or otherwise disrespectfully attributing to another a quality of meanness, disreputableness, or worthlessness.”

Montague didn’t just share his disdain for Sec. of War’s decision privately; he pronounced it to the world while serving abroad.

Montague was one of the first officers featured on Restoration of America Foundation’s Restore the Military website, created to expose officers who drag the military down and our nation with it. We launched Restore the Military in 2025 to reveal the rot and indoctrination that’s taken root in our Armed Forces under Democrat presidents—so Sec. Hegseth can weed it out.

President Trump and Sec. Hegseth are right to confront anti-American ideologies infecting the military. One overlooked area is how we educate officers. Montague, a Harvard graduate, is a clear example of why Hegseth’s decision to sever ties with Harvard was the right call.

This wasn’t Montague’s first time wading into controversial issues. In 2017, he posted a long diatribe on social media defending NFL players who knelt during the National Anthem.

He said, “this entire NFL discussion is really making me angry,” claiming players weren’t kneeling against the flag but against “ongoing racial injustice in the country.” Montague said, “protests are supposed to be messy. That’s the point, sometimes you have to shut down a city bus line to point out the obvious.”

Not only did Montague advocate publicly for people to protest, but he also pushed narratives of systemic racism, white privilege, and praised “liberalism in the 20th century.”

Montague’s public defiance and years-long pattern of politicizing his rank illustrate exactly the kind of institutional drift Hegseth is trying to address.

An officer’s job is to execute policy and, when he disagrees, to raise concerns through the chain of command, not through the op-ed page of a newspaper.

Montague’s case suggests that higher education’s influence on military leadership isn’t a hypothetical risk. It’s a reality.

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Victoria Manning is a Senior Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in education freedom, immigration, and military issues. She is the author of Behind the Wall of Government Schools. Victoria served 8 years as an elected school board member and has a master’s degree in law. She also brings the perspective of a military spouse to her reporting. Email Victoria HERE

First published on Restoration News