By William Thibeau, former Army Ranger
President Donald Trump said he wants to return the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. That is in keeping with the fact that his leadership has ushered an era of restoration for the military, something once considered impossible.
After the Biden administration weakened its integrity, the military is showing remarkable signs of recovery after only seven months with new leadership. But without legislative codification of the Trump agenda, this success will not outlast the current political moment.
The Air Force’s 2021 experiment with segregated classes for minority and female fighter pilots is one of the most glaring examples of pre-Trump military policy.
In an attempt to engineer outcomes, Air Force Generals “clustered” underrepresented candidates together to form a class that resembled the American population.
This wasn’t about excellence or skill; it was about optics. Graduation rates of preferred groups showed no measurable improvement. It was a case study in the bankruptcy of diversity as military policy.
Further, in early 2024, a time of great uncertainty, military data revealed a precipitous decline in the share of white recruits, a trend that accompanied and caused a four-year collapse in recruitment and end strength, the actual number of personnel in a branch on the last day of the fiscal year.
White recruits, once the majority in Army enlistments, were at historic lows. From 44,042 white recruits in 2018, the number fell to just 25,070 in 2023.
This decline did not accompany a corresponding rise in other demographic groups, and caused a recruitment crisis unknown to the modern era.
Only seven months into the second Trump term, every service met 2025 recruitment goals almost five months ahead of schedule. The contrast between today’s progress and the Biden years is stark.
For years, the Pentagon chased the mirage of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), spending hundreds of millions of dollars on initiatives that neither improved military readiness nor inspired the next generation of soldiers.
Simply by their service, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have made our military more ready.
This fast, undeniable reversal of key readiness metrics reveals a political and policy focus on lethality is fundamental to an effective fighting force. Once again, after far too long, the military’s purpose is to win wars, not to mirror the latest academic theories on gender or race.
In January, Trump signed two executive orders aimed at dismantling the DEI-infused administrative state. Shortly afterward, Secretary Hegseth followed his lead, excising DEI programs from every branch of the military. However, without congressional action, the next progressive administration could reinstate these programs in a matter of months.
Lurking within the Pentagon’s bureaucracy are the remnants of Biden-era policy, such as Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks’ Strategic Management Plan for 2022–2026, which institutionalized racial quotas.
Unless the legislative branch acts decisively, these entrenched structures will simply wait out the current administration, poised to reassert the old orthodoxy.
The House and Senate can follow and assume the administration’s righteous executive action without usurping the integrity of the military chain-of-command. They can and affirm this sound military policy through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and that duty begins now, as a vote on such critical legislation nears.
In fact, the purpose of the NDAA is to provide the framework for approved items of expenditure and enacted programs. The DoD cannot spend a dollar unless it is for a Congressionally authorized program.
Plenty of ground for legislative oversight already exists, so the responsibility to ensure the military’s cultural integrity by enacting policies to permanently bury DEI is well within the scope of Congress’ relationship to the military chain-of-command.
Recent history provides examples of Republican Senators and Congressmen shirking conservative principles with the opportunity for military restoration at hand.
In 2023, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.) righteously held hundreds of senior officer promotions in light of the Biden-Austin decision to use DoD funds for abortion tourism. Senator Tuberville stood alone, because almost none of his colleagues would offer meaningful support of this effort.
Examples like this, along with meager indications of legislative motivation, raise the suspicion that Republicans in the House and Senate may not be interested in burying DEI at the military.
This must not stand. This poisonous ideology can never return to the ranks of our military, and it is within Congress’ ability to make sure it doesn’t.
Will Thibeau is a veteran of the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and serves as director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. He comments regularly on defense policy and has twice testified in front of the House of Representatives.
First published in the Washington Reporter
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