BRUSSELS, Belgium — 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 the execution of culture change and willingness to support the president’s policies, lawful orders, and we’ll evaluate from there,” he said, adding:
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.
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