LET’S GO!!!
Christopher Miller, who was Trump’s acting secretary of defense from Nov. 9, 2020, until Jan. 20, 2021, wrote a chapter in the “Project 2025” blueprint about Pentagon reform.
Miller outlined one major priority is to “eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.”
“Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for servicemembers should be ended,” Miller writes.
Miller also called to reinstate servicemembers who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, which the GOP-led House passed in a draft version of the NDAA earlier this year; to instruct officers to avoid carrying out a “social engineering agenda”; and to restrict “Marxist” teachings at military academies.
The America First Policy Institute, a think tank closely aligned with Trump, also released a vision for transforming the military that includes efforts to “eliminate non-military issues such as climate change and democracy promotion from military doctrine and defense policies.”
The think tank takes aim at Critical Race Theory, an academic concept that considers racism to be systemic, and wants to “review and revise” how the Pentagon filters servicemembers out for extremism.
While it has not been explicitly mentioned, the Biden administration’s controversial policy to provide paid leave and reimbursement for servicemembers who travel for abortions could also be on the chopping block.
These efforts would undo much of the Biden administration’s four years of policies, which have worked to root out extremist anti-government actors and ensure transgender and LGBTQ members can serve in the military and protect servicemembers right for reproductive freedom.
The liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that Trump’s expected anti-transgender proposals, including preventing members from serving openly in the military, would mark a significant setback in rights for the community.
“The effects of these cruel – and unconstitutional – discrimination efforts would be devastating,” the ACLU wrote in a June post.
In his “Project 2025” chapter, Miller also writes about reducing the number of generals, criticizing “rank creep” and the enlarging ratio of high-ranking officers to lower-ranking servicemembers.
The criticism comes from the fact that today, there are more than 900 active-duty general and flag officers to some 1.3 million troops, while in World War II, there were some 2,000 officers for more than 12 million servicemembers. The ratio today is 1 officer for every 2,000 members, while in World War II, it was 1 for every 6,000 members.
Critics say the high ranks are too bloated and add an unnecessary level of bureaucracy to the military.
“Every general has a staffing of colonels and majors chasing after him, and it just generates a whole bunch of excess bureaucracy,” said Dan Grazier, a senior fellow for the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center.
