A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration has nixed DEI - or diversity, equity and inclusion - programs across federal government.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
These programs were part of a civil rights movement stretching back decades, but the president has called these efforts, quote, "dangerous, demeaning or immoral," unquote. And he's also targeting efforts to investigate extremism in the military's ranks.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman, joins us now to discuss. So Tom, first off, just start off with the Defense Department's DEI programs. What are they?
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Well, these programs have been seen as pretty effective in bringing more women and minorities into the ranks at all levels. President Biden chose the first woman, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, to run the Navy, as well as the first Black defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. But Donald Trump and his defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, have dismissed these programs as woke and divisive. Another thing they question is extremist activity.
My colleague, Lauren Hodges, and I talked about all this in our recent podcast, A Good Guy. It focused on an active-duty Marine, Sgt. Josh Abate, who was in the Capitol on January 6 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Abate told the court in a written statement that he was wrong about the election being stolen. And by the way, a Marine panel voted to keep him in, and he's still on active duty.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, so what does that say, then, about understanding extremism in the military?
BOWMAN: Well, first of all, it's important to note that about 1 in 5 of those who were arrested for January 6 activities had military backgrounds - nearly all veterans. Now, Pentagon officials have long insisted that they don't have an extremism problem, that the numbers are small. But, you know, they really don't know because they've never collected data. And the services within - just within the last several months said they would collect such data. And they outlined prohibitive behavior, such as joining militia groups, raising money for them or attending rallies for extremist groups.
MARTÍNEZ: So all this now brings us to Pete Hegseth. That's President Trump's nominee for secretary of defense. What has he said about all this?
BOWMAN: Well, he has been very outspoken, not only about his opposition to DEI programs but also efforts to better understand whether the Pentagon and the military services have an extremism problem. Here he is at his confirmation hearing, when he was asked about that by Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. Let's listen.
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PETE HEGSETH: Things like focusing on extremism, senator, have created a climate inside our ranks that feel political when it hasn't ever been political. Those are the types of things that are going to change.
BOWMAN: Now, officials who worked on these anti-extremist efforts say, no, it's not political. It's not what politician you support or even ideas you might have. It's all about action, again, like joining the militia groups, taking part in racist or anti-government rallies. But clearly, all these efforts to collect data on extremism will end.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So Hegseth will get rid of DEI programs, those extremist fact-finding programs. What else do we expect from him should the Senate confirm him?
BOWMAN: Well, we could see him making some personnel changes, maybe removing military leaders he believes got the job not based on merit but because of their gender or race. There is concern with people I talk with in the Pentagon, in the officer corps. At this point, we'll just have to wait and see.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Tom Bowman. Tom, thanks a lot.
BOWMAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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