Hegseth boasts about ending ‘woke’ program on women and security that Trump had signed into law

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 legislation by his boss, President Donald Trump.

Hegseth in an agitated publish on X, the web site previously often called Twitter, referred to as the “Ladies, Peace & Safety” 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, in actual fact, bipartisan laws that Trump signed into legislation in 2017 that acknowledged the position ladies have in reaching safety targets, particularly in conditions abroad the place their male counterparts might 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 means by the legislative course of.

This month, Gen. Dan Caine, the brand new Joint Chiefs Chairman, informed Congress that this system had helped troops in battle.

“After we would exit into the sphere after concluding an assault, we might have feminine members who would converse with these ladies and youngsters who have been on the target and they might assist us to grasp the human terrain in a brand new and novel means,” 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 Ladies, 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 primary legislation handed by any nation on this planet centered on defending ladies and selling their participation in society.”

That proposal stemmed from a U.N. decision unanimously endorsed by the Safety Council, essentially the most highly effective U.N. physique, in October 2000, geared toward together with ladies in peacebuilding efforts, as ladies and women have traditionally borne the brunt of worldwide battle.

“It’s no secret that girls stay, largely on the periphery of formal peace processes and determination making, which isn’t good for the reason for peace,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated in response to Hegseth’s feedback Tuesday.

Dujarric added that “one of many real-life impacts of the Ladies Peace and Safety program has been the rising variety of ladies peacekeepers who serve in U.N. missions, which has had a really clear, measurable and optimistic affect on the safety of civilians in battle zones.”

Hegseth’s tweet drew fast fireplace 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 industrial app Sign to share delicate army operations on an unsecured channel with different officers, his spouse and brother.

“Hegseth has completely no concept what he’s doing,” stated New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.