Pentagon says Stars and Stripes must eliminate ‘woke distractions’

Announcement

One of the early actions we did was to commission *** rapid force-wide review of military standards, fitness standards, training standards, physical standards, gender neutral standards for combat roles. To be the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force, you have to set and maintain high standards for our men and women in uniform, high, equal, and unwavering. To be lethal, you have to trust that the warrior alongside you in battle or the troops fighting in the unit that many of you will lead. Are capable, truly physically capable of doing what is necessary under fire. They need to be fit. Not fat Sharp, not shabby. Especially our leaders. And that’s why we’re reviewing how the department has maintained standards in the past, especially the last 4 years, and whether those standards have dropped formally or informally. We’re also welcoming back former service members who were wrongly forced to leave the military. More than 8700 service members were involuntarily separated for not taking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. Others were more informally pushed out or decided to get out. We are welcoming actively back those warriors of conscience. We’ve sent letters out. We’re seeking them out. We want them back. They never should have been forced back, and we hope they come back quickly. And our personnel and readiness department is working in real time to make that process more and more efficient, more and more direct every single day. And as we welcome those warriors back, we’re giving wokeness the boot. We’ve said goodbye to the harmful effects of woke culture and so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. We’re removing DEI content. Eliminating quotas, ensuring recruitment, retention and promotions are based on performance, not immutable characteristics. DEI is dead at DOD. We’re building *** merit-based culture that promotes and rewards individual initiative. Excellence and hard work. We’re also working hard to protect command climate. We’re going to be reviewing IG and EO processes that too often are weaponized against commanders in formations. I can’t tell you how many men and women I hear from about to take battalion or brigade leadership or wing leadership, you name it. who feel like they’re walking on eggshells. Because of processes that were put in place that undermine *** commander’s ability to lead, we are reviewing that all. We’re also optimizing the civilian workforce, ensuring that we have the right employees in the right roles at the right time to support our warfighters. We’re doing this by voluntary means to the greatest extent possible, through offerings like voluntary early retirement and separation initiatives. We’re also ending low productivity telework and remote work culture. Teams work best when they work together in person, butts in seats, not on Zoom. We’re making accountability and high performance the watchwords for the department at all levels, we expect employees to deliver results and respond to leadership needs. Their incentives and their performance plans, we believe, quickly and in real time will reflect that. It’s *** lot of change. Very quickly Now, as you may have noticed. The media likes to call it chaos. We call it overdue How are the men and women responding to this, to this call? Well, I can tell you personally it’s going better than we could have ever expected. This department, and you know it, across the joint force is filled with patriots who want nothing more than to focus, be laser focused on serving their country. And that’s why retention is rebounding rebounding as well, big time in real time. But one of the clearest metrics so far is actually coming from outside the military. The enthusiasm of young Americans in particular is off the charts. You know firsthand how challenging it has been to recruit in recent years. We’ve faced *** legitimate recruiting crisis where we couldn’t recruit enough men and women to enter the military, so we lowered the amount required and still didn’t meet the amount of people required in recruitment. That’s over. Over the last few months, the Army has had its best recruiting numbers since 2010. The Navy is on track to have its best recruiting year since 2002, before many of the newest recruits were even born. I cannot tell you how many texts and calls I get, members of my staff get that get referred to me of people who had ruled out in their family military service and are now, because of President Trump and his leadership, enthusiastic about going to boot camp or OCS and serving their nation. The other branches are on track to well exceed their targets as well. It is *** recruiting renaissance in America of America’s best and brightest. When our standards are high, when the mission is clear, when we prioritize war fighting over wokeness, that energizes the young men and women of our country, the very patriots over this American experiment we have always needed. They’re proud of their country. They’re proud of our military and like generations before them, they will rise to the challenge set before us. As leaders, all of us, all we have to do is keep raising the bar and putting the mission and our people first. That’s reviving the warrior ethos. Second objective is rebuilding the military. We’ve all served long enough to see the downward trajectory of readiness in our forces. President Trump promised to reverse that decline, and that reversal is well underway just 100 days in. He has declared and delivered on the beginnings of *** generational investment in rebuilding our military, much like Ronald Reagan did. In the 1980s. Our goal is to put the best systems in the hands of warfighters to ensure that as leaders, You have the systems that support what you need for maximum lethality. You should never. Be in *** fair fight. That’s our job. First, we are rapidly moving to moving ahead on. One of the president’s key campaign promises, which is *** golden dome for America, *** nationwide missile defense system to protect Americans from the threat of nuclear, hypersonic, and conventional weapons here in our homeland. Another incredibly exciting program is the newly announced and already launched F-47. It’ll fly faster, further, more stealthy, and more lethal than any fighter jet in the history of mankind. When the president signed that, I was standing right next to him. I thought of my kids and my grandkids. Who will benefit from the projection of power that we’re investing in right now. It sends *** very clear message to our allies. We’re not going anywhere. And to our enemies, we will be able to project power around the globe for decades to come. These investments are not just in Golden Dome and F-47. Historic investments in the border, in hypersonics, in long range drones, in shipbuilding, in modernization, you name it, we’re investing in it. Taken together, these programs mean that we will be able to strike anywhere, anytime, while our citizens at home will be protected from the worst that our enemies could possibly throw at us, defending the homeland. But it’s not just these marquee programs. Over the past 100 days, we’ve been assessing the department from top to bottom to ensure that we’re getting more faster, better, and more efficiently. Last month we published guidance to the acquisition workforce. Sounds wonky, but it’s very important. Reinforcing the software acquisition pathway as our preferred model. We have to be able to get what we need and when we need it. And just this week we began reviewing all 72 active major defense acquisitions programs. As President Trump outlined in his executive order on defense acquisition, We must have high performing mission aligned programs at every level.

The Pentagon said Thursday that it is changing the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes so it concentrates on “reporting for our warfighters” and no longer includes “woke distractions.”Related video above: “DEI is dead at DOD,” says Hegseth in U.S. Army War College speechThat message, in a social media post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spokesman, is short on specifics and does not mention the news outlet’s legacy of independence from government and military leadership. It comes a day after The Washington Post reported that applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes were being asked what they would do to support President Donald Trump’s policies.Stars and Stripes traces its lineage to the Civil War and has reported news about the military either in its newspaper or online since World War II, largely to an audience of service members stationed overseas. Roughly half of its budget comes from the Pentagon and its staff members are considered Defense Department employees.The outlet’s mission statement emphasizes that it is “editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command” and that it is unique among news organizations tied to the Defense Department in being “governed by the principles of the First Amendment.”Congress established that independence in the 1990s after instances of military leadership getting involved in editorial decisions. During Trump’s first term in 2020, Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried to eliminate government funding for Stars and Stripes — to effectively shut it down — before he was overruled by the president.Call for newspaper to be ‘custom tailored to our warfighters’Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, said on X Thursday that the Pentagon “is returning Stars and Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.” He said the department will “refocus its content away from woke distractions.””Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Parnell wrote. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”He said the department is committed to ensuring the outlet’s legacy of reporting news that’s important to service members.Stars and Stripes’ publisher, Max Lederer, did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment. But Jacqueline Smith, the outlet’s ombudsman, called Parnell’s statement a surprise. She said Stars and Stripes reports on matters important to service members and their families — not just weapons systems or war strategy — and she’s detected nothing “woke” about its reporting.”I think it’s very important that Stars and Stripes maintains its editorial independence, which is the basis of its credibility,” Smith said. A longtime newspaper editor in Connecticut, Smith serves in a role created by Congress three decades ago to ensure that independence, and she reports to the House Armed Services Committee.It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to impose restrictions on journalists. Most reporters from legacy news outlets have left the Pentagon rather than to agree to new rules imposed by Hegseth that they feel would give him too much control over what they report and write. The New York Times has sued to overturn the regulations.Trump has also sought to shut down government-funded outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that report independent news about the world in countries overseas.Also this week, the administration raided the home of a Washington Post journalist as part of an investigation into a contractor accused of stealing government secrets, a move many journalists interpreted as a form of intimidation.The Post reported that applicants to Stars and Stripes were being asked how they would advance Trump’s executive orders and policy priorities in the role. They were asked to identify one or two orders or initiatives that were significant to them. That raised questions about whether it was appropriate for a journalist to be given what is, in effect, a loyalty test.Smith said it was the government’s Office of Personnel Management — not the newspaper — that was responsible for the question on job applications and said it was consistent with what was being asked of applicants for other government jobs.But she said it was not something that should be asked of journalists. “The loyalty is to the truth, not the administration,” she said.

The Pentagon said Thursday that it is changing the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes so it concentrates on “reporting for our warfighters” and no longer includes “woke distractions.”

Related video above: “DEI is dead at DOD,” says Hegseth in U.S. Army War College speech

That message, in a social media post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spokesman, is short on specifics and does not mention the news outlet’s legacy of independence from government and military leadership. It comes a day after The Washington Post reported that applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes were being asked what they would do to support President Donald Trump’s policies.

Stars and Stripes traces its lineage to the Civil War and has reported news about the military either in its newspaper or online since World War II, largely to an audience of service members stationed overseas. Roughly half of its budget comes from the Pentagon and its staff members are considered Defense Department employees.

The outlet’s mission statement emphasizes that it is “editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command” and that it is unique among news organizations tied to the Defense Department in being “governed by the principles of the First Amendment.”

Announcement

Congress established that independence in the 1990s after instances of military leadership getting involved in editorial decisions. During Trump’s first term in 2020, Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried to eliminate government funding for Stars and Stripes — to effectively shut it down — before he was overruled by the president.

Call for newspaper to be ‘custom tailored to our warfighters’

Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, said on X Thursday that the Pentagon “is returning Stars and Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.” He said the department will “refocus its content away from woke distractions.”

“Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Parnell wrote. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”

He said the department is committed to ensuring the outlet’s legacy of reporting news that’s important to service members.

Stars and Stripes’ publisher, Max Lederer, did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment. But Jacqueline Smith, the outlet’s ombudsman, called Parnell’s statement a surprise. She said Stars and Stripes reports on matters important to service members and their families — not just weapons systems or war strategy — and she’s detected nothing “woke” about its reporting.

“I think it’s very important that Stars and Stripes maintains its editorial independence, which is the basis of its credibility,” Smith said. A longtime newspaper editor in Connecticut, Smith serves in a role created by Congress three decades ago to ensure that independence, and she reports to the House Armed Services Committee.

It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to impose restrictions on journalists. Most reporters from legacy news outlets have left the Pentagon rather than to agree to new rules imposed by Hegseth that they feel would give him too much control over what they report and write. The New York Times has sued to overturn the regulations.

Trump has also sought to shut down government-funded outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that report independent news about the world in countries overseas.

Also this week, the administration raided the home of a Washington Post journalist as part of an investigation into a contractor accused of stealing government secrets, a move many journalists interpreted as a form of intimidation.

The Post reported that applicants to Stars and Stripes were being asked how they would advance Trump’s executive orders and policy priorities in the role. They were asked to identify one or two orders or initiatives that were significant to them. That raised questions about whether it was appropriate for a journalist to be given what is, in effect, a loyalty test.

Smith said it was the government’s Office of Personnel Management — not the newspaper — that was responsible for the question on job applications and said it was consistent with what was being asked of applicants for other government jobs.

Announcement

But she said it was not something that should be asked of journalists. “The loyalty is to the truth, not the administration,” she said.