'Not for long': Incoming Trump Sec Def Pete Hegseth takes aim at Air Force Academy wokeness

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had a simple response for Sen. Mike Lee when informed about woke policies at the US Air Force Academy: “Not for long.”

Lee recounted he had spoken with the father of a US Air Force Academy cadet and was told that the Air Force Academy’s official forms refer to him as the cadet's "non-birthing parent."

As Fox News host, author, and podcaster, Hegseth has been emphatic in his opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DEI) policies in the US armed forces. "The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired," he wrote in “The War on Warriors,” according to Reuters.

Hegseth has also questioned the choice of Gen. Charles Brown Jr. for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We'll never know, but always doubt - which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn't really much matter," he wrote, according to Reuters.

The former US Army major has also mentioned that he is personally opposed to having women in combat roles. "I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles," he said during a podcast where he also suggested the Department of Defense required some major adjustments in senior personnel to get back on track.

"First of all, you got to fire the Chairman Joint of the Chiefs and obviously going to bring in a new Secretary of Defense, but any general that was involved -- general, admiral, whatever -- that was involved in, any of the DEI woke s---, has got to go," Hegseth said during a recent interview on the "Shawn Ryan Show" podcast, ABC News noted. "Either you're in for warfighting, and that's it. That's the only litmus test we care about."

Since being nominated for the defense post, Hegseth has endured criticism from many quarters for not having sufficient experience to lead the department and was even targeted by the Associated Press for a Christian tattoo supposedly associated with "white supremacy," despite the Latin phrase “Dues Vult” being translated as “God wills it.” Hegseth called the controversy another example of "anti-Christian bigotry" by the legacy media.