Pete Hegseth tears into DEI, ‘woke navy’ in fiery West Level commencement speech
Secretary of Warfare Pete Hegseth tore into DEI and a “woke navy” in a fiery speech to graduating cadets at West Level Saturday.
With President Trump contemplating renewed strikes in opposition to Iran, Hegseth directed his hardest speak towards navy leaders who backed range applications he stated had been sapping the armed forces of power.
Opening his remarks on a wet day on the storied navy academy overlooking the Hudson River, Hegseth ripped “woke and weak leaders attempting to make West Level appear to be woke Princeton, which occurs to be my lengthy misplaced and misplaced alma mater.”
Hegseth, who was admitted to the navy academy however picked the Ivy League faculty the place he joined the Reserve Officers’ Coaching Corps as an alternative, stated prior leaders “embraced the DEI craze” and endangered troopers.
“Let me be completely clear, you aren’t an ‘military of 1’, and you’re actually not a military of woke. You might be an American military, a military of warriors,” he stated.
Talking at an establishment that educated each Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, Hegseth additionally took a shot at woke efforts to wash navy bases and monuments of confederates generals who led the revolt in opposition to the Union.
“You’ve seen requirements lowered, you’ve seen an obsession with race and gender, you’ve seen the watering down of self-discipline, codes weakened, and traditions tossed apart within the identify of political correctness,” he fumed.
Then he railed in opposition to “statues taken down, work positioned within the basement. I’m right here to inform you the sluggish slide right here at West Level, and throughout america Military, is over,” Hegseth promised.
He spoke of the phrase “our range is our power,” which the secretary known as “the only dumbest phrase in navy historical past.”
“Variety will not be our power. Unity is our power,” he stated, earlier than touting the Military assembly its recruiting objectives.
