Wednesday Morning Rant

One of the obvious and glaring differences between the 2016 and 2024 Trump Administrations has been in the cabinet. This time around, Trump has some real fighters and loyalists doing critical work for his administration, and who can meaningfully "move the ball down the field" on key objectives. The person most people would probably mention first if asked is Marco Rubio. Sure, he is Secretary of State and doing a tremendous job there, he has also become something of a "minister without portfolio," jumping in wherever he's needed and whipping things into shape while wiping the floor with the opposition. Rubio is a key policymaker and much of what he is doing will pay dividends for years to come.

Looking past Rubio, there are other cabinet standouts. Linda McMahon has been doing meaningful work at Education, working to roll back much of the prior era's disastrous wokification of public education and working to cut some of the supports out from under the ideological sewer that is "higher education." Sean Duffy has been quarterbacking major initiatives around air traffic control and cutting back on Biden-era regulatory nightmares like the "green" highway construction requirements. Chris Wright has been a dynamo at Energy (pun intended, enjoy), clearing the decks for increased atomic power and helping to degrade the war on oil. There are various others doing the work to move the agenda and set the country up for success, but there may be no cabinet secretary who is doing more to secure the future of the Republic than Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth burst into office promising to modernize the armed forces to respond to emerging threats and to refocus their efforts on actual warfighting and preparedness, shifting away from ideological loyalty and cronyism. Much of the woke crap is gone. The double standards in the armed forces for men and women are being rolled back. It's about war, being ready for war, being capable of war. He made a lot of waves in the press last year when he gave his address at Quantico, targeted squarely at senior officers and rank-and-file policy. There was much pearl clutching when he told them that they were expected to be fit, well-groomed and competent and they were expected to focus on the business of war instead of on progressive politics.

He's gotten to work on it, and has had a good year and an especially good month. The biggest press waves came from this year's address at Quantico, mostly because - horror of horrors - he was mean about progressive sacred cows and emphasized that major reduction in force for the top ranks will continue. There was much pearl-clutching because of two particular parts of the speech:

No more social engineering, no more weaponized IG policies. The complainers, the ideologues, and the poor performers are no longer in the driver's seat. No more silly PowerPoint trainings or drag queen shows. No more diversity quotas, no more gender pronouns, no more identity months, only the warrior ethos. And I know you feel it because I've been to your units and met with your troops. It has transformed entire formations as it was intended to do. But it's worth saying again, so that the fake news understands it. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that, no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors, just tough, ready, committed troops. The war department, as you know, is colorblind, gender-neutral, and merit-based.

You see, the number crunchers say we've fired 10% of the generals and admirals across the force, and that number sounds about right. And I know because I directed it that we've also reduced the overall number of general officer slots by an additional 10%. So yes, 20% reduction across the board. Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum. As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment. You see, you can't change a culture with the same people who enabled it. Personnel is policy at every single level.

A bit before the annual address at Quantico, Hegseth announced a new system for promotions to general or admiral ranks, called the "Joint Warfighter Evaluation." This new scheme will test colonels and captains in war games and simulations to ensure they can effectively manage combat and competently command forces as a condition of promotion. Making general or admiral will no longer be primarily a political game of loyalty and ideological purity, but an exercise in the demonstration of skill and competence. That is a major and important development to help ensure that the next set of flag officers know what they're doing. And that next set is going to be needed and needed soon, as the War Department starts cycling out flag officers installed under the old rules.

For 12 of the past 18 years, Obama and Biden headed the most ideologically ruthless administrations in modern history and had plenty of time to install loyalists throughout the government, and the military was no exception. Hegseth said that the press would call his reductions at the flag level a "purge" and I would call it that, too. Unlike the press, however, I am not criticizing it. While trimming out progressive ideologues from the highest ranks is crucial, Hegeth's work to help secure the military's future by making the promotions process less political and more focused on actual combat and military operations is even more important. Yes, it is a very good thing that the "trannies, beardos, weirdos, wimps and radicals" are being removed and that should not be downplayed, but this year's initiatives are about helping to secure that progress.

The groundwork Hegseth laid last year was more about the lower ranks. Last year's focus on eliminating double standards based on sex or rank, eliminating time-wasting, soul-crushing and nonsensical woke "training," eliminating ideological or identity-based promotions or carve-outs, etc. all help clean up the pipeline and ensure that the boots on the ground and those NCOs and junior officers who keep the gears turning are competent and ready. This year, he's targeting the higher part of the hierarchy, not just through eliminating personnel but through refilling those positions in a better, more reliable, more competent and less political way.

Trump's cabinet has been doing generally good and sometimes exceptional work day in and day out on the important business of winning the present. Of all the secretaries, however, Hegseth may be doing the most to win the future.

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

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