Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth received thunderous applause from American servicemembers at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg after trashing woke policies instituted by the former administration.
Straight from the House Appropriations Committee hearing, DefSec Hegseth joined President Trump to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. He reiterated his unwavering commitment to developing the Warrior ethos by restoring Standards, accountability, readiness, training, war fighting, and lethality in line with Trump’s executive order, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” “Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion,” the executive order stated.
“So at the Defense Department, we’re doing three critical things at his direction,” he said. “Number one, we’re restoring the Warrior Ethos. We’re getting back to basics,” Hegseth continued, eliciting more cheers from the crowd. “Standards, accountability, readiness, training, war fighting, lethality. We’re not a college or university. We’re not interested in your woke garbage or your political correctness,” he said as soldiers erupted in thunderous applause.
President Trump was also warmly received by the Fort Bragg crowd, where he criticized the former radical left administration for changing the name of the base. In 2023, the Biden administration renamed Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty to dissociate it from the Confederate and Mexican-American War general Braxton Bragg, after whom it was named.
“It’s a beautiful sight to be with you in a place called Fort … Bragg,” Trump said, in his characteristic mocking tone. “Can you believe they changed that name in the last administration for a little bit?” Trump asked, eliciting some boos from soldiers who disapproved of the name change. “But we — we’ll forget all about that, won’t we? We’re gonna forget all about it.”
President Trump also promised to sign an executive order reverting the names of seven military bases renamed by the previous administration in response to the George Floyd mass riots. “We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump said. “We won a lot of battles out of those forts, it’s no time to change.”
Fort Moore would also revert to its original name of Fort Benning. While Fort Bragg reverted to its original name, it now honors World War II soldier Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, rather than Confederate General Braxton. By honoring soldiers who bear the same names as those honored by the previously renamed bases, the Trump administration is trying to circumvent a congressional ban on Confederate names for U.S. bases. However, restoring the original names is part of Trump’s attempt to completely purge Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies implemented by the previous administration.
Your headline is extremely misleading – done on purpose?