Hegseth boasts about ending 'woke' program on women and security. Trump
signed it into law
[April 30, 2025]
By TARA COPP and FARNOUSH AMIRI
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted on social media
Tuesday that he had dismantled a program supporting women on security
teams, an initiative that he called “woke” but actually was signed into
law by his boss, President Donald Trump.
In a post on the social platform X, Hegseth called the “Women, Peace &
Security” program at the Defense Department "a UNITED NATIONS program
pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it;
troops HATE it.”
It was, in fact, bipartisan legislation that Trump signed into law in
2017 that recognized the role women have in achieving security goals,
especially overseas when their male counterparts may not be able to
question or have direct access to women for cultural or religious
reasons.
It’s the latest controversial move from Hegseth as the Pentagon works to
nix programs or content seen as promoting diversity, equity or
inclusion. After Trump ordered federal agencies to purge DEI content,
the Pentagon issued a broad edict to the military services that ignited
public outcry when online images of national heroes like Jackie Robinson
were briefly removed.
Some of Trump's Cabinet officials supported the Women, Peace and
Security program when it was moving through the legislative process. And
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress
this month that the program had helped troops in battle.
“When we would go out into the field after concluding an assault, we
would have female members who would speak with those women and children
who were on the objective, and they would help us to understand the
human terrain in a new and novel way,” Caine said during his April
confirmation hearing.
Trump met and became endeared to Caine when Caine was serving in Iraq,
part of the reason Trump nominated him to the chairmanship.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while representing South Dakota
in Congress, wrote the House version of the 2017 Women, Peace and
Security Act with Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who as a senator co-sponsored the Senate
version of that bill, said this month that it was "the first law passed
by any country in the world focused on protecting women and promoting
their participation in society.”
The legislation stemmed from a resolution unanimously endorsed by the
U.N. Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body, in October 2000,
aimed at including women in peacebuilding efforts because women and
girls have historically borne the brunt of global conflict.
“It’s no secret that women remain largely on the periphery of formal
peace processes and decision making, which is not good for the cause of
peace,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in response to
Hegseth's comments Tuesday.
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump
meets with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a
bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday,
April 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Dujarric added that “one of the real-life impacts of the Women,
Peace and Security program has been the increasing number of women
peacekeepers who serve in U.N. missions, which has had a very clear,
measurable and positive impact on the protection of civilians in
conflict zones.”
Hegseth's post drew fire from Democratic lawmakers who are
continuing to question his qualifications for the job following his
use of the commercial app Signal to share sensitive military
operations with other officials, his wife and brother.
“Hegseth has absolutely no idea what he’s doing,” Sen. Jeanne
Shaheen, D-N.H., said on X.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., read Hegseth's post aloud during a
congressional hearing Tuesday.
“That tweet contains some glaring inaccuracies that are far beneath
the standard we should expect from the Department of Defense,” Kaine
said.
Hegseth in his post called the program “yet another woke
divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our
commanders and troops," pledging to do the bare minimum required by
Congress while working to eliminate it altogether.
But the program has been celebrated by Trump, his administration and
his family. It became a heralded part of the first Trump
administration's accomplishments for women, and in 2019, Ivanka
Trump celebrated that the WPS program was starting a new partnership
to help train female police cadets in Colombia.
In a later post, Hegseth called the program “straight-forward &
security-focused” but said it had been “distorted & weaponized” by
the Biden administration. He confirmed his intention to end it.
A spokesman for Hegseth said there would be no further comment on
the secretary's posts.
___
AP journalist Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.
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