Donald Trump declared on Friday at a campaign rally in North Carolina that he would form a task force to keep an eye on “woke generals” and do away with diversity training for military personnel.
Trump said to the assembly, “They’re gone,” alluding to the generals, according to The Independent.
This suggestion comes years after veteran F-15 pilot Matthew Lohmeie was stripped of command in Trump’s Space Force in 2021 for slamming the diversity and inclusion training during a conservative podcast.
Appearing on a recording of the Information Operation program, Lohmeier charged that military personnel are getting training rooted in Marxism and critical race theory, a specialized field of study that the Republican Party exploited as a concept to criticise a broad range of identity- and inclusion-related programs and policies.
Later, Lohmeier wrote a book titled Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military, which discussed similar assertions.
In a Friday Q&A at Trump’s North Carolina event, Lohmeier said that “woke generals,” whom he termed “monsters,” were dividing American troops. He urged to the GOP presidential leader to form a committee to oversee progressive viewpoints in the military if re-elected.
Trump agreed to the former Air Force Pilot’s request and went on to say, “I’m going to put you on that task force,” prompting enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
The former President is not new to bashing the military for being “woke,” even though it has a nonpartisan history.
When Trump sought resignation of Mark Milley
Back in 2021, Trump demanded the resignation of Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley, falsely asserting that the head of the armed forces “went to Congress and actually defended Critical Race Theory being shoved down the throats of our soldiers.”
Seeking his resignation, Trump had declared: “Be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag.”
The attacks against Milley commenced after the general appeared before Congress, defending courses at U.S. service academies against Republican attacks on subjects like racism and identity.
He correlated his interest in social justice to the January 6th uprising at the US Capitol.
“I want to understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the constitution of the United States of America, what caused that? I want to find that out,” he added.
Later, officials from Homeland Security issued a warning, stating that the greatest threat to national security was domestic violent extremism, which included members of the security services.
The Anti-Defamation League claims that the vast majority of murders connected to extremism in the US have been committed by right-wing extremists over the past ten years.
