By TARA COPP and FARNOUSH AMIRI
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted on social media Tuesday that he had dismantled a program supporting ladies on safety groups — and will not have realized this system he tried to interrupt was not a “woke” Biden-era initiative however as a substitute a celebrated program signed into regulation by his boss, President Donald Trump.
Hegseth in an agitated submit on X, the web site previously generally known as Twitter, referred to as the “Women, Peace & Security” program on the Division of Protection “a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”
It was, actually, bipartisan laws that Trump signed into regulation in 2017 that acknowledged the function ladies have in reaching safety targets, particularly in conditions abroad the place their male counterparts could not for cultural causes have the ability to query or wouldn’t for non secular areas have direct entry to ladies. Trump’s personal Cupboard officers supported this system when it was working its method by way of the legislative course of.
This month, Gen. Dan Caine, the brand new Joint Chiefs Chairman, instructed Congress that this system had helped troops in battle.
“When we would go out into the field after concluding an assault, we would have female members who would speak with those women and children who were on the objective and they would help us to understand the human terrain in a new and novel way,” Caine stated throughout his April affirmation listening to. Trump met and have become endeared to Caine when he was serving in Iraq, which was a part of the rationale Trump nominated him to the chairmanship.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, who on the time represented South Dakota within the Home, wrote the Home model of the 2017 Girls, Peace and Safety Act alongside Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois. And as lately as this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who as a senator co-sponsored the Senate model of the invoice, stated that it was “the first law passed by any country in the world focused on protecting women and promoting their participation in society.”
That proposal stemmed from a U.N. decision unanimously endorsed by the Safety Council, probably the most highly effective U.N. physique, in October 2000, geared toward together with ladies in peacebuilding efforts, as ladies and ladies have traditionally borne the brunt of worldwide battle.
“It’s no secret that women remain, largely on the periphery of formal peace processes and decision making, which is not good for the cause of peace,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated in response to Hegseth’s feedback Tuesday.
Dujarric added that “one of the real-life impacts of the Women Peace and Security program has been the increasing number of women peacekeepers who serve in U.N. missions, which has had a very clear, measurable and positive impact on the protection of civilians in conflict zones.”
Hegseth’s tweet drew rapid hearth from Senate Democrats who’re persevering with to query Hegseth’s {qualifications} for the job amid the persevering with fallout from his use of the business app Sign to share delicate army operations on an unsecured channel with different officers, his spouse and brother.
“Hegseth has absolutely no idea what he’s doing,” stated New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
“That tweet contains some glaring inaccuracies that are far beneath the standard we should expect from the Department of Defense,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia stated as he learn the tweet aloud throughout a Congressional listening to Tuesday.
A spokesman for Hegseth didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the secretary’s tweet.
Whereas Hegseth in his submit referred to as this system “yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops” and pledged to do the naked minimal required by Congress to take care of it whereas working to eradicate it altogether, this system has been celebrated by Trump, his administration and his household.
It grew to become a heralded a part of the primary Trump administration’s accomplishments for girls, and in 2019, Ivanka Trump celebrated that the WPS program was beginning a brand new partnership to assist practice feminine police cadets in Colombia.
Sagar Meghani contributed from Washington.
Initially Printed: April 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM EDT
