Pete Hegseth Hates The Boy Scouts, Apparently

Every single day, the Trump administration reminds us that every policy — every single decision its officials make — is rooted in ideology, not what’s best for the country.

Recently, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that he’s planning to sever all ties between the U.S. military and Scouting America, formerly the Boy Scouts, not because it has proven to be abusive towards children, or to be a front for some kind of criminal organization, but because, in his MAGA mind, the Scouts just isn’t manly enough anymore.

Now, I’m not saying the Boy Scouts organization has ever represented the best America has to offer or anything, but when a top official with the federal government is denigrating and talking about cutting ties with the organization because it doesn’t adhere to hard right-wing principles, then it becomes clear the allegations of authoritarian rule the administration has faced this year aren’t just partisan rhetoric; they’re expressions of what’s observable.

It’s almost as if MAGA gas officially jumped the shark. (You know, after the boat battery sank the ship, or whatever.)

According to documents reviewed by NPR, what Hegseth is actually claiming is that the Boy Scouts is no longer a “meritocracy” and has become an organization designed to “attack boy-friendly spaces.” Coming from the same guy who called all of the nation’s top military officials into one room just to tell them the military is far too fat, feminine and lacking in “warrior ethos,” it’s a fair bet that Hegseth’s bid to end the century-long relationship between the U.S. military and the Boy Scouts is just more anti-woke and anti-diversity nonsense coming from an unqualified MAGA loyalist who wouldn’t recognize meritocracy if it were included in classified war plans exposed in a Signal chat.

From NPR:

In a draft memo to Congress, which sources shared with NPR but which has not yet been sent, Hegseth criticizes Scouting for being “genderless” and for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The military has provided support to the Scouts for more than 100 years, assistance that was formalized in 1937. But in one memo, Hegseth says, “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”

The proposal calls for the Pentagon to no longer provide medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, which brings in as many as 20,000 scouts to a remote site in West Virginia. It also states that the military will no longer allow Scout troops to meet at military installations in the U.S. and abroad, where many bases have active Scout programs.

Up until now, the military has lent trucks, ambulances and medical teams to support the scouting program’s Jamboree, a gathering of thousands of young scouts held every three or four years. In other words, the government has played an active role in keeping children — including the boys Hegseth is pretending to advocate for — safe and healthy during Jamboree, and the defense secretary wants to put a stop to this. It would be the wildest non-logic imaginable if non-logic weren’t as essential to MAGA ideology as racism, xenophobia and the rejection of science and facts.

Unsurprisingly, Hegseth’s memo to the House and Senate Armed Services committees argues the Scouts have strayed from their mission to “cultivate masculine values,” and it is fostering “gender confusion,” apparently, because non-males are allowed to take part in Scouting America’s various programs. Apparently, he thinks the mere existence of children who are not boys will confuse the children who are.

A draft memo to top Pentagon leaders claims “Scouting America has undergone a significant transformation.”

“It is no longer a meritocracy which holds its members accountable to meet high standards,” the memo concluded.

So, now Scouting America is DEI. That’s where we are.

For the record, Hegseth has never been a Boy Scout. NPR noted that he “has said he grew up in a church-based youth group that focuses on memorizing Bible verses,” but he was never a member of the organization he has, for years, been pretending to be an expert on.

Last year, when he was still a Fox News host, not the nation’s top military official, he complained about the Scouts changing their name and admitting girls back in 2018.

“The Boy Scouts has been cratering itself for quite some time,” Hegseth said. “This is an institution the left didn’t control. They didn’t want to improve it. They wanted to destroy it or dilute it into something that stood for nothing.”

Look, none of this is terribly surprising coming from the guy who promotes pastors who think women shouldn’t vote. Still, it’s wild how those who claim to be the most masculine are this eager to show how fragile their masculinity actually is. Hegseth literally wants to withhold medical support from children because boys are in spaces where there are also girls around.

And he’s even claiming that the Scouts being co-ed puts the nation at risk.

It was a congressional decision that required the Pentagon to support the scouting program’s Jamboree, so Congress would have to undo it. However, the law includes an exemption that allows the Secretary of Defense to withhold support  if he determines providing it would be “detrimental to national security.” Hegseth is banking on that clause, claiming the “gender confusion” that exists only in his gender-insecure mind could, somehow, put America at risk.

We didn’t need this move to illustrate to us that the Trump administration hates girls, diversity, and progress, but this sure is a sad and pathetic way to further demonstrate that truth.

This administration continues to be a daily embarrassment.

SEE ALSO:

Boy Scouts Racist Bullying Incident Tied To Trump

Trump’s DoD Pick Is Fox News Host

Pete Hegseth Wants The Military To Cut Ties With The Boy Scouts Because Of ‘Gender Confusion,’Or Whatever was originally published on newsone.com