Pete Hegseth Bragged About Ending A ‘Woke’ Program. There’s Just 1 Problem. | EUROtoday

The initiative that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bragged about ending on Tuesday was really one which President Donald Trump touted throughout his first time period as a approach of empowering girls.

“This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the @DeptofDefense,” Hegseth wrote on X.

He went on: “WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING. WPS is a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”

He mentioned the Pentagon would adjust to it solely as far as it needed to by legislation, and would “fight to end the program for our next budget.”

Yet it was Trump — not former President Joe Biden — who signed the Women, Peace and Security Act into legislation in October 2017 after the measure garnered bipartisan help in Congress. Two years later, Trump’s administration launched a method to implement the initiative all through the U.S. authorities. It grew out of a United Nations initiative however discovered loads of advocates on Capitol Hill.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was one of many invoice’s authors, again when she was a congresswoman from South Dakota.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio additionally co-sponsored the Senate’s model of the invoice, and just lately touted it as “the first comprehensive law passed in any country in the world — the first law passed by any country anywhere in the world — focused on protecting women and promoting their participation in society.”

The measure acknowledged that when girls take part in mediation, battle decision, and peacekeeping efforts, they’re stronger for it.

“GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!” Hegseth wrote on X.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the lead Republican sponsor in her chamber, instructed HuffPost she was “disappointed” within the secretary’s choice.

“I believe Ivanka Trump was very interested in this. I think we’ve learned that through our experience in Iraq and in Afghanistan that women have a powerful experience achieving and seeking peace and security in countries where maybe they don’t have the same kinds of rights that we do here,” Capito mentioned.

The protection secretary’s brief tenure has to date been stricken by missteps. Since The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had unintentionally texted info on a deliberate navy assault to the publication’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, studies have emerged that solid doubt on Hegseth’s capacity to maintain delicate info safe.

Trump has to date stood behind the previous Fox News host, who got here into the job with no expertise main a company as giant and well-funded because the U.S. navy equipment.

“I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump instructed The Atlantic over the weekend.

Igor Bobic contributed to this report.