What did Donald Trump do today?
He announced he was gutting a "woke" law he'd signed during his first term.
Today, Trump's Secretary of Defense (for the moment) announced that he had "ENDED" the DOD's Women, Peace and Security program. Pete Hegseth called it a "UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists."
Hegseth added that it was "yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING."
In reality, what WPS does is encourage the participation of women in building and maintaining peace in conflict zones. Where women can take part in the peace process, outcomes are better and longer-lasting, which means less need for "WARFIGHTING" that unnecessarily risks American lives.
Or, as Trump's own State Department puts it:
The full, equal, and meaningful participation of women at all levels of peacebuilding, security, and decision-making processes is essential to achieving sustainable global peace and security. The U.S. implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) is both a moral and strategic imperative of U.S. foreign policy and national security. When we invest in WPS initiatives through policies and programs, we invest in sustainable peace, international security, and economic stability.
Since returning to office, Trump has systematically purged women from military commands, usually without any explanation, although almost always with some veiled reference to their gender. But that doesn't really explain why Trump feels so strongly about this program that encourages the role that women can play to help resolve conflicts.
Trump himself has never served in the military, claiming student exemptions from the Vietnam draft, and when those ran out, a mysterious and non-recurring foot ailment, which was attested to by a doctor who called the diagnosis a "favor" to his landlord, Fred Trump Sr.
The Women, Peace, and Security Act was passed on a voice vote by both houses of a Republican-controlled Congress in 2017, and signed into law by the president at the time—Donald Trump.
Why does this matter?
- America's military effectiveness is more important than political performance art.