Jeffrey Goldberg
@WashingtonWeekPBS·209K subscribers·2.6K videos
How cutting DEI programs affects military readiness
Posted
February 2, 2025
Views
6,292
Likes
127
Engagement
2.02%
February 2, 2025
6,292
127
2.02%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
1:41Now PlayingIn his first two weeks back in office, President Donald Trump moved swiftly to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs across government agencies and eventually lay off federal DEI staff.
On Friday, hours before the start of Black History Month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared cultural awareness months "dead" at the U.S. Department of Defense.
Washington Week moderator Jeffrey Goldberg asked Nancy Youssef of the Wall Street Journal how those inside the Pentagon are feeling.
Youssef pointed out that the removal of DEI offices “had already started before the Trump administration came in.”
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2023 "actually required the military to get rid of DEI offices," Youssef said . The NDAA authorizes funding for the Defense Department each year.
At the same time, Youssef said she's been hearing military leaders talk about the potential of Trump's orders to affect unit cohesion and readiness.
“When you're hearing troops start asking themselves, ‘Is my race, is my gender going to be used against me?’ that's when you start to feel it,” Youssef said.
Watch the latest Washington Week with The Atlantic here
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
