Pete Hegseth has repeatedly criticized the U.S. military’s decision to repeal its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy because he thinks it is part of a broader leftist, Marxist agenda.
CNN published an extensive report Thursday detailing statements made by Hegseth, the television host facing allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, in which he grieves the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a Clinton-era policy that allowed gay and lesbian service members to join the military as long as they never told anyone about their sexual orientation. The rule was repealed under the Obama administration.
When asked Thursday whether he opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Hegseth said, “Oppose the repeal? No, I don’t.” He called CNN’s report “more false reporting.”
As it turns out, Hegseth has been talking about this for years. During a 2015 appearance on Fox News, Hegseth lamented the decision to allow women and people openly identifying as LGBTQ+ to serve in the military.
“What you’re seeing is a military right now that is more interested in social engineering led by this president than they are in war fighting. So, as a result, through ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and women in the military and these standards, they’re going to inevitably start to erode standards,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth argued that this kind of change was made simply so military higher-ups “can put them on a recruiting poster and feel good about themselves, and has nothing to do with national security.”
Hegseth did not go so far as to explain exactly what standards these soldiers failed to meet, or how they were specifically detrimental to military operations. This vague criticism seems to be a pattern for Hegseth, who made similar comments disparaging female soldiers, specifically saying they were unfit for combat, but didn’t deign to explain why, simply citing “historical” precedent.
Even in his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth provided no real evidence for the dire consequences of these supposedly eroding standards.
He wrote that while he was initially ambivalent about the rule change, he eventually decided that it was the beginning of the end for a military that was being driven to care about social issues more than fighting because, for some reason he never bothers to describe, no organization could do both.
He changed his view, “Not because I have a newfound ax to grind with gay Americans, but because I naïvely believed that’s what ending ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was all about. Once again, our good faith was used against us,” he added.
Ahead of Trump’s election he continued to tout “don’t ask, don’t tell” as part of the efforts of “leftists and Marxists,” and said it was only the beginning of liberal “tinkering” with the military.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition told CNN that, “like President Trump, Pete wants to see the U.S. military focus on being the world’s strongest fighting force—not on cultural and social issues. Bottom line: If you can meet the standards, you can serve.
“But given the threats we face, our priorities shouldn’t be lowering standards and wasting taxpayer money to meet arbitrary social quotas—our priorities should be readiness and lethality.”
This statement seemingly leaves the door open for Hegseth and others at the Defense Department to make way for changes to policies that promote the involvement of women and people identifying as LGBTQ+.