Bloomberg opinion columnist Andreas Kluth railed against the “petty” anti-woke policies that are plaguing the Department of Defense and the State Department
The moves of Secretaries Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio “sow division at a time when Defense and State should instead be conserving and concentrating their resources to face the menace to America from an aggressive Russia, a revisionist China, and a rogue North Korea and Iran,” Kluth wrote.
His remarks come after Hegseth announced he is reviewing the naming of the USS Harvey Milk. The ship was named after the gay civil rights leader in 2016. Milk was a lieutenant in the Navy during the Korean War who was offered discharge “other than honorable” because being gay was a crime in the military at the time.
Hegseth has called the naming of the ship a part of the “DEI/woke sht.”
Similarly, Rubio’s State Department is taking on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies at home and abroad. Rubio has told staff to give transgender persons their gender at birth on their passports, instead of X.
Kluth added, “The State Department is also alienating foreign countries directly. US embassies across Europe have sent letters to companies and local governments that interact with the American missions, requiring them to certify that they don’t have DEI policies on the books.”
“Hegseth and the administration are not trying to level a playing field previously warped by identity politics, but to shift power to a group they happen to favor: men, especially the Christian, straight and pale kind,” Kluth said.
The columnist called Hegseth and Rubio’s “backlash” seemingly “Robespierrean — excessive and maniacal.” The phrase Robespierrean refers to the Jacobin leader Maximilien de Robespierre, who headed the Committee of Public Safety. He was overthrown and guillotined during the French Revolution.
He later added, “If this administration really thinks that national security is threatened by a refueling vessel named after a gay sailor, it deserves to enter history books as not just petty, but dangerously so.”