By Kristina Wong | Breitbart News
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Thursday that he is paying “very close attention” to who is executing the lawful orders from President Donald Trump and that woke generals “will have a different job in due time.”
“I’m paying very close attention. There’s plenty of three- and four-star generals up for promotion or up for new positions, and there will already be a few folks that that we’ve identified who will have different jobs in due time,” the defense secretary said.
I’m not here to declare anybody woke and they’re out.
We’re watching the execution of culture change and willingness to support the president’s policies, lawful orders, and we’ll evaluate from there.
I’ve never seen it as my job to walk in on day one and point at somebody and declare them a woke general and fire them. I actually think that would be the wrong way to go about doing it.
However, over time, we get a very good sense of those that are willing to execute enthusiastically the lawful orders across that chain of command.
And if people are not willing to, or they hedge on it, we’re paying attention.
And I think it’s one of those things where you responsibly execute culture change. And a lot of that ultimately does come down to people.”
Hegseth said immediate focus is implementing the executive orders issued by Trump, which have ordered the elimination of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) in the military, the banning of troops with gender dysphoria from serving, and reinstatement of troops who were kicked out or left over the COVID vaccine mandate.
“From the beginning, we have focused on culture and culture development, the five and ten meter targets have been here are the executive orders. Here are the directives on woke on DEI, on CRT, on genderism, on trans service members, on COVID. You pick it, we we’re advancing it,” he said.
“And we’ve paid very close attention to how those lawful orders have been executed. We’ve got a professional uniformed military class who was following, whether we like them or not, lawful orders previously,” he said.
“Now they got a whole different set of orders. And so, as the refreshing part of this job thus far is to see and feel like most men and women in uniform feel liberated, more than confronted.
They’re grateful for the new direction. It’s clarifying, it’s simplifying, and they want to execute it,” he added.
“Trust me, we’re paying very close attention to make sure that those orders are followed and followed swiftly, not just in the letter of the law, but in the spirit of the law, with the kind of enthusiasm that’s required to execute culture change.”
He said that change would take a “little bit of time.”
“And it’s only been like three weeks. We’ve done a lot in three weeks,” he said. “Look at the balance of the speed with which we’ve executed, including attacks on ISIS, including tragedies that have occurred, calling families, meeting with foreign leaders, the border.”
On personnel policy changes, he said, “You want to get the lay of the land, understand human terrain, give people the benefit of the doubt in an apolitical institution like the military and then evaluate. So we got a little bit of time. We’re paying attention.”
The defense secretary spoke to Breitbart News during his first official international trip to Stuttgart, Germany; Brussels, Belgium; and Warsaw, Poland, to meet with American troops stationed overseas and attend the 2025 NATO defense ministerial.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on ”X”, Truth Social, or on Facebook.
First published on Breitbart News
Did President Obama, give non-woke Generals a grace period to “jump on board” before he fired over 178(not sure about exact number) and rehired the “Woke” force? NO- do these people operate in a clandestine nature, behind closed doors? Absolutely! Will they continue to hide and spread their cancer- of course they will.
If Trump had not won the 2024 election, THEY would have him behind bars right now!
Wrong move SECDEF Hegseth- these traitors will stab us all in the back!
Same goes with Academia-My daughter is at NE University- they have renamed their DEI office to the “Office of Belonging”, lol! DEI must be removed TOP down- LEADERS FIRST, and swiftly- maybe DOGE should be in charge of the military!
Both Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth made numerous public commitments to the American people to quickly oust from the ranks of military leadership officers who facilitated and aggressively pushed the Marxist ideologies of DEI/CRT into the services and the academies. At the top of the heap is CJCOS General C.Q. Brown, of “too many white pilots” fame.
What happened to accountability at the DoD? Enlisted personnel, cadets, midshipmen and newly commissioned young officers must all be wondering the same thing. I suspect some sort of a “deal” has been worked out not to fire Brown but to retain him for the time being. Marginalizing him and relegating him to the sidelines would avoid possible accusations of racism because General Brown is black. Ultimately the Sec Def takes his marching orders from the commander in chief. But Trump has been called all these names before. So what’s different now?
While Sec Def Hegseth is busy “getting the lay of the land”, “getting a good sense” and giving people “the benefit of the doubt”, C.Q. Brown remains in his exalted position. It is highly unlikely that General Brown has changed any of his long-held personal views about racism in American society and within the military services. His deeply felt resentments were on full display in a 2020 video, ” What I am thinking about”, just after the George Floyd killing.
It is galling, to say the least, to see General Brown in recent news footage now being saluted by the Sec Def, who is apparently “looking forward to working with him”, and remaining in power, even as a figurehead. It seems it was General Milley who was destined to take the brunt of the criticism about DEI in the military. Hopefully, President Trump and the Secretary of Defense will decide to take action before General Brown’s portrait is installed in the Pentagon!
In the meantime, many of us are left with vague promises that woke generals will have “new jobs in due time.” It all smacks of back peddling, stalling and retreat to me.