In a podcast interview last Thursday — the same day Donald Trump reached out to him to become his new Defense Secretary — Fox News host Pete Hegseth spelled out the priorities that the once and future president has at the top of his mind for his second administration, and why Hegseth is his pick to carry them out as Trump’s new pick to lead the Department of Defense.

“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said, referring to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr, who is Black and expressed sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minnesota police.

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He also said reproductive rights are now a thing of the past.

“Any general, any admiral, whatever,” who was involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programs or “woke s–t” has “got to go,” Hegseth said.

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Hegseth, 44, served as an Army infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a member of the Minnesota National Guard. He joined Fox News in 2015 and hosts the network’s Fox & Friends Weekend program, where Trump has been a frequent guest.

“You gotta get DEI and [critical race theory] out of the military academy so you’re not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking,” he said.

Hegseth maintained things were different when he served, saying he “had a sense that my senior leaders were committed to the completion of the mission for the right reasons,” but added, “[Now,] that trust is broken, and you have to reestablish that trust by putting in no-nonsense warfighters in those positions who aren’t going to cater to the socially correct garbage.”

Hegseth also maintains women shouldn’t be serving on the front lines.

“Over human history, men in those positions are more capable. Straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth asserted in a recent CNN interview.

Hegseth has been an ardent defender of three service members accused of war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Two earned pardons from then-President Trump at his urging.

One mechanism for Trump’s promised military purge is already drawn up, The Wall Street Journal reports. An advisory committee, called the “warrior board” in draft documents, will review top brass for their political views, disguised as an effort focused “on leadership capability, strategic readiness, and commitment to military excellence.”

The outside group of former military members, stocked with partisan Trump appointees, will make recommendations to the new Defense Secretary for removal. Hegseth would be key to carrying out the purge, essentially forcing the military members to retire. It is legal for Trump to do this since, as president, he will be the military’s Commander-in-Chief.

Trump’s assault on top generals comes after he recruited several to his first administration. Many later went public with concerns over the president’s leadership, including an accusation by his own chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Ret. Army Gen. Mark Milley, that Trump is “a total fascist.” 

There is precedent for an outside group advising the military on top personnel.

Gen. George C. Marshall established a so-called “plucking board” in 1940, led by retired general officers, to clear out the military’s upper ranks and make room to promote promising junior officers. Politics was not a factor in assessing the aging leadership as the U.S. prepared for inevitable involvement in World War II.

This time, it’s purely political.

“Do they start wearing MAGA hats in formation to signal who’s where?” one former senior Pentagon official asked the Journal. “The potential for this to go wrong is infinite.” 

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