PROMISES KEPT: Trump Scrubs Cancerous DEI from the Military. It's Already Healing.

On his first day in office, President Donald J. Trump signed numerous executive orders removing the deeply embedded tentacles of all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives within all U. S. government entities. 

Since then, his much-anticipated second administration has been going full-bore, rooting out the cancerous social contagion of DEI from every forgotten crevice and deceptively renamed department of the entrenched bureaucracy. 

What is DEI, exactly? 

Known colloquially as "wokeness," DEI is a set of leftist policies mandated or forced on most U.S. businesses, educational and governmental systems, and other organizations by the Left. DEI programs claim to increase inclusivity through racial diversity and social equity. And like most leftist policies, it's something else entirely. 

By definition, DEI favors certain racial groups while punishing the successes and merits of out-of-favor racial groups. In other words, it pretends to promote fair treatment and include everyone. In reality, it is simply institutional racism applied against whites and other successful racial groups as "equitable" repayment for the assumed and presumed wrongdoings of the past, such as slavery. As a type of race-based Cultural Marxism, DEI promotes the indoctrination of students and others into the leftist struggles "over race, sex, and other immutable traits." 

DEI Causes Infected Organizations to D-I-E

For years, the Obama and Biden administrations encouraged DEI to fester and grow within the U.S. government. Once infected, organizations like the U.S. military quickly lost sight of their core missions.

According to the Defense Department's website, its "mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security." Instead, leadership spent significant time and money creating a more "inclusive and representative" woke military force. As a result of integrating woke DEI initiatives into the U.S. military, combat readiness, cohesion, and effectiveness were damaged.

By prioritizing identity-based goals, such as gender, race, or sexual orientation, DEI sidelines merit as well as effectiveness. In highly competitive and dangerous environments, a military team must trust each member while performing under immense pressure, regardless of their racial or ethnic backgrounds. DEI shifts the military's focus and undermines its core mission.

Emphasizing differences, such as race, gender, or sexual preferences, over competence creates divisions within the ranks. Traditionally, the military fostered unit cohesiveness through shared American values and mission goals, but focusing on so-called diversity and group identity builds resentment and polarization instead. If soldiers feel judged on or promoted due to their group identity rather than their skills or qualifications, morale suffers and cohesion is lost.

DEI policies also encouraged the military to drop hiring and promotion standards. Under Biden, the Pentagon prioritized inclusivity over qualifications or competence in its leaders to meet artificial diversity target numbers—inevitably leading to weakened leadership, incompetence, and, ultimately, mission failure.

When individuals from favored groups are given preference despite lacking the qualifications or experience required for success in specific roles, reverse discrimination occurs. In other words, DEI undermines trust in the fairness of the military's system of advancement. It damages morale and builds resentment among those members who feel unfairly overlooked.

DEI training and the broader focus on woke DEI policies divert time and resources from critical combat training. In short, DEI contributes to a massive and dangerous distraction within the military, which lowers overall combat readiness.

The push to focus on unserious leftist political issues such as racial sensitivity, unconscious bias, and transgenderism detracts from weapons proficiency, strategic planning, and other military training.

In high-pressure military situations, clear, direct communication is imperative. DEI's culture of political correctness necessarily prohibits candid truth-telling that goes against the Left's ideological narrative. When miscommunication can be deadly, the woke need to avoid offending anyone compromises the military's effectiveness and core mission.

The U.S. military has a long history of tradition, hierarchy, and discipline. DEI in the military undermines these traditions by replacing them with leftist politics that is incompatible with a cohesive military culture.

If, for example, woke soldiers believe military leadership is patriarchal and too inflexible, respect for authority decreases. And if soldiers believe that woke ideology—not skill, experience, or military discipline—should drive decision-making, trust in leadership decreases while polarization between members and ranks increases.

If non-woke soldiers believe their leadership is compromised or diluted by woke DEI policies, respect for military leadership decreases. When woke DEI policies erode the chain of command, the traditional will to follow orders decreases while division increases. Ideological polarization compounded by the fear of retaliation for non-compliance creates and enforces these divisions. Such polarization also provokes rank-and-file soldiers to question the military's leftist mission at the expense of combat preparedness, safety, and its true core mission. 

Soldiers within the ranks who hold traditional conservative American values become alienated by DEI policies. Commonsense dictates that when soldiers' political ideologies affect their ability to perform cohesively as a team or damage their sense of fairness, that results in an unhealthy and unstable environment where politics—not merit or skill—become the mission.

That political motivation erodes trust in and respect for military leadership. Soldiers then question the motives behind leadership decisions, suspecting that DEI policies influence them more than military objectives. This fact led to some of the lowest military recruiting numbers in decades. It's worth noting that this recruiting trend spectacularly reversed once Trump took office and removed many military DEI policies.

DEI = Decreased Recruitment and Retention

Why on earth would anyone want to join a military that alienates those who hold traditional conservative American values? Many potential recruits felt unwelcome in the Biden military due to the increasing focus on woke DEI within the military. During that time most recruits chose not to enlist or recommit after completing their original service commitment. The loss of experienced soldiers further weakened the military's effectiveness and reduced the institutional knowledge essential for maintaining a competent fighting force.

Candidate Trump campaigned on a platform commitment to removing wokeness and DEI policies from the U.S. military. He viewed DEI initiatives as threatening the military's effectiveness and cohesion and pledged to focus on strengthening the military by removing those distractions. So far, so good, President Trump.

(READ MORE: Under Biden, Military Training Standards Fell to New Lows. Pete Hegseth Must Raise the Bar—and Fast)