Pete Hegseth’s latest poke at “woke” America, this time the growing politically correct culture inside the Pentagon, has given him a new immediate bestseller.
The War On Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free soared to No. 1 on Amazon in its debut this week and sits at No. 2 just three days into his whirlwind book tour.
“The response has been humbling,” Hegseth told Secrets on Thursday. He said veterans and military families have been flooding his email inbox and phone messages to thank him for blasting the military’s shift from a focus on warfighting to social matters such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“It’s just thank you for writing this book. You’re finally saying what all of us have been thinking. We just needed someone to say it, that this is what’s going on at a big level. And it’s been edifying,” the co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend said.
It is the New York Times bestselling author’s latest book targeting liberal ideology taking over society. His 2022 Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation, was also a bestseller.
The War On Warriors, published by Fox News Books, details his years in the military and the “woke” policies he witnessed that Hegseth believes are driving down recruitment, quality, and military readiness.
“It was happening over decades, mostly over the last two decades, but it’s been on hyperspeed under [President Joe] Biden,” he said.
“Ideologues have dug in, and they’ve got the leadership of the Pentagon right where they want them, already compromised to the social justice nonsense, and now unable to fight back against the craziest stuff. So, they just continue to go along with it, and you see DEI and [critical race theory] and the gender stuff even more embedded into the way the Defense Department operates,” he said.
Hegseth told us he believes former President Donald Trump is the only presidential candidate who can stop the shift, fire “woke” generals, and return the Pentagon back to soldiers.
“He knows personnel is policy,” Hegseth said. “There’s no reason not to go to the mat at this point across all the institutions, with the Department of Justice and the Defense Department being at the top of the list of places you need to bring back in and align with our Constitution, with our values, and befitting asking men and women to give their life for it,” he added.
Hegseth predicted that the left media would assail any change Trump wants, but he said that a return to tradition and performance is necessary in the military.
“It’s not a purge. It’s not a MAGA takeover. It’s reforming the institution back to its core purposes and getting rid of all the nonsense,” he said.
“Donald Trump is the man to do it,” he added.
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Hegseth was eyed for a top job, including secretary of Veterans Affairs, in the first Trump administration. He is not pushing for a role in a second Trump administration should the former president win.
“I consider myself an information warrior. You know, try to tell the story better than the other guy. My plan is to keep doing that. We’ll see what happens, but if he wins, he’ll have a lot of choices on his hands,” the veteran said.
