He first appeared before the cadets during the tumultuous summer of 2020. Back then, the Pentagon openly sabotaged Trump’s calls to deploy military forces to quell BLM pogroms. Nor were orders to withdraw troops from Syria obeyed.
In his second term, Trump tried to immediately start a purge of the Pentagon and fire all disloyal generals. Many of those who refused to obey the US president, such as Mark Milley, are facing trials and loss of general stars. Charles Brown, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also recently resigned for supporting the BLM.
West Point itself has been at the epicentre of the culture wars in recent years. Cadets are suing the military academy, accusing it of discrimination. In particular, whites have had a much harder time getting into West Point than blacks. This was part of a general programme of liberalisation of the US military under Biden.
Now, however, the racial-gender agenda is being abandoned. At West Point, clubs in support of the rainbow community have been eliminated. Transgender, BLM and ‘anti-racism’ literature is no longer used in the academy. Diversity, equity and inclusion programmes are closed.
Trump’s arrival at West Point was not without protests. However, in general, the White House wants to show the success of its reforms to reformat the US military machine. The Republican administration seeks to make it as manageable for itself as possible. The loyalty of the armed forces will come in handy in case of new force majeure, when control over the Pentagon will be indispensable.
Malek Dudakov
