5 Military Officials Whose Left-Wing Antics Must Be Accounted For

In a major step toward accountability at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken a series of punitive actions directed at former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley for his purportedly improper conduct.

On Tuesday, Fox News reported that Hegseth yanked Milley’s personal security detail and clearance. He has also directed the Defense Department’s new inspector general to “conduct a review board to determine if enough evidence exists for Gen. Milley to be stripped of a star in retirement based on his actions to ‘undermine the chain of command’ during President Donald Trump’s first term.”

Pentagon Chief of Staff Joe Kasper subsequently confirmed Fox’s reporting in a statement provided to the media.

In 2021, it was reported that while serving under Trump, Milley told his counterpart in the Chinese military that the U.S. has no intention of attacking China, and that he would “call [Beijing] ahead of time” if Trump were to launch such an offensive. The retired Army general also reportedly called Trump a “fascist to the core,” and seemingly referred to the 47th president as a “wannabe dictator” in his 2023 retirement speech.

Milley has also defended the military’s embrace of neo-Marxist ideologies such as so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), which military specialists have long maintained harm military readiness and efficiency. When asked during a 2021 congressional hearing about a West Point course seminar titled, “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage,” Milley replied, “I want to understand White rage. And I’m White. And I want to understand it.”

[READ: Trump Signs Orders Restoring Integrity And Lethality To America’s Military]

While Milley’s punishment is a good first step in restoring faith and integrity at the Pentagon, the former Army general is one of numerous military officers who deserve accountability for the damage their left-wing antics have done to the force’s reputation and readiness.

Charles Q. Brown

Promoted by Biden to replace Milley as Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, Gen. Charles Q. Brown has a history of touting DEI in the Air Force.

While participating in a virtual discussion hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2020, Brown indicated that “[a]t the higher level of the Air Force, diversity ha[d] moved to the forefront of personnel decisions such as promotions and hiring.” During the same event, the Air Force general also admitted to using his post to increase opportunities for so-called “diverse candidates” in the Air Force, saying he “hire[d] for diversity” when building his staff.

Brown’s remarks came months after he posted a video responding to the death of George Floyd, in which he questioned whether non-black airmen viewed racism as a problem. The general said, “I’m thinking about how these airmen view racism, whether they don’t see it as a problem since it doesn’t happen to them or whether they’re empathetic.” At the end of the video, Brown also expressed his desire to acquire “the wisdom and knowledge to lead, participate in, and listen to necessary conversations on racism, diversity, and inclusion.”

Brown has also pushed back on Republican criticisms of DEI in the military and signed off on a 2022 Air Force memo directing the Air Force Academy and Air Education and Training Command to “develop a diversity and inclusion outreach plan” aimed at “achieving a force more representative of our Nation.”

Benjamin Jonsson

Weeks after George Floyd’s death, Air Force Col. Benjamin Jonsson penned an article in the Air Force Times complaining that his fellow white airmen don’t go along with leftist talking points about so-called “racial injustice” in the military.

“As white colonels, you and I are the biggest barriers to change if we do not personally address racial injustice in our Air Force. Defensiveness is a predictable response by white people to any discussion of racial injustice. White colonels are no exception,” Jonsson wrote. “We are largely blind to institutional racism, and we take offense to any suggestion that our system advantaged us at the expense of others.”

He further admonished a fellow white colonel who allegedly expressed the meritocratic view that “when anyone joins the Air Force, they need to adopt the culture of the Air Force [and] that [the branch] should not make cultural accommodations.” And if that wasn’t cringey enough, he concluded his rant recommending airmen craft a “game plan” to tackle “invisible barriers” in the military by reading Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism — a book that promotes divisive ideologies like critical race theory (CRT).

The article was one of several instances in which Jonsson pushed DEI throughout his military career.

Derek Trinque

It’s no secret leftists took Covid hysteria to the extreme. But Navy Adm. Derek Trinque’s response is on a whole different level of insane.

On Aug. 17, 2021, for example, Trinque “endorsed” an Aug. 2, 2021, New York Times article that encouraged insurance companies to “penaliz[e]” individuals who chose not to get the Covid shot. The tweet came a day after Trinque lamented Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s Aug. 16, 2021, executive order allowing parents to opt their child out of their local school mask mandate.

In his tweet, Trinque wrote: “Sigh. We are never going to kick this thing.” (Children are the least at-risk demographic when it comes to Covid mortality).

Trinque was a big supporter of Biden’s military Covid shot mandate and even recorded a video for the Navy encouraging sailors to get the experimental jab months before the mandate. He was also a major fan of Dr. Anthony Fauci, writing in response to a January 2021 Daily Mail article reporting Fauci as the “HIGHEST PAID employee in the federal government” that the article “appears to be a really weak attempt to make [him] feel bad” and that Americans “are getting quite a bargain here.”

Trinque has also displayed an infatuation with tearing down Confederate monuments, DEI, feminist tropes, and furthering the left’s phony “book ban” narrative.

Jim Slife

Promoted by Biden to be vice chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. James “Jim” Slife hasn’t been shy about using his capacity to push DEI.

Slife authored a memo following the death of George Floyd, in which he espoused racialist jargon and claimed the matter was “an Air Force issue.”

“We’d be naive to think issues of institutional racism and unconscious bias don’t affect us,” Slife wrote. “We can’t ignore it. We have to face it. And to face it, we have to talk about it.”

Slife went on to contend that it’s important for the military to “listen to other perspectives and accept them as valid, but perhaps incomplete.” He also all but declared he has what leftists often refer to as “white privilege,” writing that he is “limited in [his] perspective” as a “middle-aged white man who grew up in a middle class family in a predominantly white area.”

“I have been in ‘the majority’ in almost every organization I’ve ever been in. I don’t fully understand … but I’m trying …,” Slife wrote.

Slife additionally encouraged service members to listen to “a series on the podcast ‘Scene on Radio’ called ‘Seeing White,’” which the then-lieutenant general claimed touches on so-called “institutional racism” in America. The “Scene on Radio’s” X, or Twitter, account indicates the podcast is extremely left-wing.

Slife would go on to participate in forums promoting DEI orthodoxy in the years that followed.

Stephen Whiting

Promoted by Biden to lead Space Force Command, Gen. Stephen Whiting was reportedly instrumental in removing a service member who publicly expressed concern about the military’s embrace of Marxist ideology.

While promoting his book, Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military, during a May 2021 podcast interview, Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier spoke about how the DEI trainings troops were receiving “are rooted in critical race theory which is rooted in Marxism.” He further criticized the “anti-American” concepts pushed by The New York Times’ thoroughly debunked 1619 Project, which attempts to rewrite history by asserting that America’s founding is based upon slavery and racism rather than the premise that “all men are created equal.”

“It teaches intensive teaching that I heard at my base — that at the time the country ratified the United States Constitution, it codified white supremacy as the law of the land,” Lohmeier said. “If you want to disagree with that, then you start (being) labeled all manner of things including racist.

It wasn’t long after Lohmeier’s interview aired that a Space Force representative told Military.com and other outlets that Whiting — a proponent of DEI — had “relieved” the lieutenant colonel of command due to a supposed “loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead.” The representative confirmed the decision was “based on” Lohmeier’s podcast remarks.

Lohmeier has since been nominated by Trump to serve as America’s next under secretary of the Air Force.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood