The U.S. Military will no longer consider sex, race, or ethnicity when evaluating individuals for promotion, command, or special duty assignments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a memo Wednesday.
"A foundational tenet of the DOD must always be that the most qualified individuals are placed in positions of responsibility in accordance with merit-based, color-blind policies," Hegseth said. "The DOD mission is to win the Nation's wars. To do this, we must have a lethal fighting force that rewards individual initiative, excellence, and hard work based on merit."
Hegseth also directed staff to create a DEI task force to ensure no diversity, equity, inclusion programs remain in the Pentagon.
"We’re not joking around," Hegseth said in an interview with Fox News. "There’s no changing of names or softly manipulating something. DEI is gone."
President Donald Trump last week moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.
The moves Tuesday follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s DEI programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. Trump has called the programs "discrimination" and insisted on restoring strictly "merit-based" hiring.