According to reports, Donald Trump intends to appoint retired former military veterans to a “warrior board” to screen out “woke generals” who are seen to be unsuited for leadership roles.
The president-elect’s transition team is said to be considering a draft executive order with the power to review three and four-star officers they find ‘lacking in requisite leadership qualities’, according to the draft seen by the Wall Street Journal.
Donald Trump pledged throughout his reelection campaign to rid the military of so-called “woke” generals, even suggesting that former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and critic Mark Milley may be put to death for treason.
According to current and former U.S. officials, Trump would emphasise loyalty during his second term and remove career civil workers and military personnel whom he believes to be disloyal.
Beginning in January, Trump, as commander-in-chief, will have the authority to dismiss any officer. However, an outside board would enable him to circumvent the Pentagon’s customary promotion process, implying an impending purge, according to the WSJ.
The draft order reportedly says it will aim to set up a review focusing on ‘leadership capability, strategic readiness, and commitment to military excellence’.
The requirements for fulfilling these standards are not explicitly stated.
According to the WSJ, an unidentified external policy organisation assisting the transition team in getting Trump ready for office helped create the directive.
Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the transition team, did not address the order directly but told the outlet: ‘The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.’
Such an order would give the so-called ‘warrior board’ power to sack top officials for failing standards, although it is expected Trump will be keen to target those responsible for the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as those he deems ‘woke’.
Running for office, he was asked by Fox News in June whether he would fire generals described as ‘woke’.
‘I would fire them. You can’t have (a) woke military,’ Trump said.
According to some insiders, the team may target Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a well-liked former fighter pilot and military leader who avoids politics.
The Black four-star general has been an advocate for diversity in the U.S. military and released a video message on prejudice in the ranks in the days following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a police officer.
Asked for comment, Brown’s spokesperson, Navy Captain Jereal Dorsey, told Reuters: ‘The chairman along with all of the service members in our armed forces remain focused on the security and defence of our nation and will continue to do so, ensuring a smooth transition to the new administration of President-elect Trump.’
Retired army general Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also severed ties with the president-elect, having called him ‘fascist to the core’ in the run-up to the election.
Milley stepped down in September 2023 after more than 40 years in the military and raised concerns about Trump in his retirement speech.
In 2023, he sensationally told the Washington Post that Trump was ‘the most dangerous person to this country’, deeming him ‘a total fascist’.
‘If the people in your own government aren’t obeying you, you have got to get rid of them and replace them with people who are responsive to what the president’s trying to do,’ Vance said in an interview with Tucker Carlson before the election.
Trump promised throughout the campaign to reverse a decision made following Floyd’s murder and return the name of a Confederate commander to a significant U.S. military installation.
Transgender troops were the target of Trump’s most vehement anti-woke rhetoric throughout the campaign.
Trump has previously banned transgender service members and posted a campaign ad that opens a new tab on X portraying them as weak, with the vow that ‘we will not have woke military!’
Fox News and army veteran Pete Hegseth was nominated by Trump to be his defence secretary starting next year.
Before joining Fox News, the 44-year-old, who received two Bronze Stars for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, campaigned unsuccessfully for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012.
He is also the author of ‘The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.’
The book, according to its promo, combines ‘his own war experiences, tales of outrage, and an incisive look at how the chain of command got so kinked,’ and bills itself as ‘the key to saving our warriors – and winning future wars.’
As Trump continues his divisive tactics, Kori Schake of the conservative American Enterprise Institute cautioned that high-level dismissals may occur during a second administration.
‘I think there will be an enormous chaos premium in a second Trump term, both because of the policies he will attempt to enact and the people he will put in place to enact them in terms of appointments,’ she said.
Such worries were dismissed by one U.S. military officer, who stated on condition of anonymity that causing disarray in the chain of command of the U.S. military would result in political reaction and be superfluous for Trump to achieve his objectives.
‘What these guys will find out is that military officers are generally focused on warfighting and not politics,’ the military official said. I feel they’ll be satisfied of that—or at least they should be.’
From using the National Guard and maybe active-duty troops to assist in the mass deportation of illegal immigrants to even using them to quell domestic unrest, Trump has indicated that the U.S. military might be a key component of many of his policy initiatives.
To be fair, we could use some of this in the UK to regain our nation and military but to be honest, people did keep voting Tory, and it was under them that all this ‘woke’ stuff started.
Wokeness must be acknowledged as a disgraceful aspect of our history, when we permitted minorities to pressure the majority to tolerate their actions, regardless of how offensive they were to us, and now it’s not even a matter of ‘majority’ vs ‘minority’ because those numbers can change or flip, given the situation. It’s just a matter of it being so wrong.
Keir Starmer, look, read, listen, and learn, and stop fannying around.
Perhaps Trump’s return to ascendancy will prove contagious in many other countries, including the UK, but Starmer is too woke to entertain this because he knows if he appointed ex-military, one of the first people to go would be Starmer himself.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 