Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump directed the secretaries of defense and homeland security this week to review the leadership, instructors and curriculum of the nation’s military academies they oversee to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices and initiatives.
- The executive order also directs these military academies to teach that “America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.”
- The directive is the latest by Trump to dismantle DEI efforts at public and private institutions. During the first week of his presidency, he also signed an order directing agencies to identify organizations, including colleges with endowments exceeding $1 billion, for potential investigations over their DEI practices.
Dive Insight:
The new executive order, signed Monday, directs newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to review the Pentagon’s “actions taken in pursuit of DEI initiatives, including all instances of race and sex discrimination and activities designed to promote a race- or sex-based preferences system.”
It is part of a series of new military policies via executive orders, including one reinstating service members dismissed for refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine and another taking aim at transgender soldiers.
Monday’s executive order prohibits educational institutions operated by either the U.S. Department of Defense or the Armed Forces from promoting several concepts, including that America’s “founding documents are racist or sexist” or that gender exists beyond a binary of male and female. The Trump administration’s stance on gender doesn’t align with that of the American Medical Association, which says gender identity exists on a spectrum.
The Defense Department oversees three of the nation’s military academies: the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversees the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
It's not clear whether the order also covers the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, as it is overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is not mentioned in the executive order.
“The Department of Defense will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency, and in alignment with national security objectives,” an Air Force Academy spokesperson said in an email Wednesday. “We will provide status updates as we are able.”
The Naval Academy said it couldn’t immediately comment. The three other academies did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how the executive order could impact them.
The nation’s military academies have also been under fire about their use of race-conscious admissions. The landmark 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the practice at civilian colleges exempted military academies, with Chief Justice John Roberts noting they may have “potentially distinct interests.”
Students for Fair Admissions, the anti-affirmative action group that brought the Supreme Court case, has also sued West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy. A federal judge upheld race-conscious admissions at the Naval Academy in December, though SFFA quickly appealed the decision.
The Biden administration had defended race-conscious admissions at military academies before the Supreme Court, arguing that having diverse service members was a “national security imperative.”
But the Trump administration may take a different tack. Hegseth told lawmakers that he opposes the idea of race-conscious admissions at the military academies. Writing in response to follow-up questions after his confirmation hearing, he said he rejected that the academies “should have different standards for individuals with different skin colors,” according to Reuters.
The Senate confirmed Hegseth last week in a 51-50 vote. It was only the second time the vice president had to cast the tiebreaking vote for a cabinet secretary; the first was for Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as education secretary during the first Trump administration, The New York Times reported.
