Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

It takes a special kind of incompetence to cancel a Pentagon program and forget it was created by your own team. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth isn’t here for strategy—he’s here for slogans. And this week, in a half-cocked fit of social media warfare, he pulled the plug on the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) program like he was gutting a parking lot diversity workshop.

Only problem? The WPS program wasn’t some lefty, Birkenstock brainchild. It was signed into law by Donald J. Trump in 2017 and pushed through Congress by Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and Mike Waltz—all now members of Trump’s national security inner circle. Even Ivanka Trump loved it.

Let that sink in: Hegseth just trashed a law written by the same folks who are on his team.

He called WPS “woke,” “divisive,” and “pushed by feminists and left-wing activists.” Maybe he forgot that Marco Rubio—not exactly known for burning bras—called it a world-first achievement in protecting women and promoting their role in global security just four weeks ago. Maybe he didn’t bother checking the paperwork before going full keyboard Rambo on X.

Or maybe Pete’s playing to the base, betting that shouting “woke” loud enough will drown out the fact that he just stomped on a Trump-era policy, alienated half the Pentagon’s coalition partners, and blindfolded military planners who know that ignoring women in conflict zones isn’t strength—it’s stupidity.

Let’s be clear: WPS wasn’t about handing out participation trophies. It was about improving intelligence-gathering and mission outcomes by understanding how women are targeted and weaponized in conflict. The CIA knows it. Special Forces know it. Hell, even NATO gets it. Women are often the first to see war coming and the last to be protected when it arrives. You want counterinsurgency success? You’d better talk to half the population.

But Hegseth’s too busy fighting imaginary battles in the break room to bother with real-world complexity. His brand of warfighting is performative: all flags and fists, no facts. It’s not just a culture war. It’s a war on competence.

Good generals don’t fear complexity. They understand it’s part of the job. Hegseth, meanwhile, would rather gut proven programs than admit someone else—hell, even someone on his own team—had a good idea.

And let’s not ignore the irony here: the same administration crying about loyalty just watched its Defense Secretary gut a law signed by the former president. That’s not loyalty—that’s a fragging.

So here’s a battlefield truth: You don’t win wars by closing your eyes to half the world. You don’t make your troops tougher by making your doctrine dumber. And you sure as hell don’t lead by playing politics with the mission.

You want to scrap something, Pete? Start with your own briefing binder. It’s clearly collecting dust.