Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has mandated that admission be based strictly on merit.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed all military service academies to cease using diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) criteria in admissions.
The memo, signed on Friday, specifies that MSA admission offices must no longer consider “considerations of race, ethnicity or sex” when evaluating applicants and must base their decisions “exclusively on merit.”
Academies have 30 days to comply with the new standards.
Furthermore, merit-based scores may factor in “unique athletic talent” or other experiences like prior military service and performance at a MSA preparatory school.
“This ensures only the most qualified candidates are admitted, trained, and ultimately commissioned to lead,” Hegseth stated in the order, adding that “selecting anyone but the best diminishes lethality, warfighting readiness, and the culture of excellence in our Armed Forces.”
In a separate memo issued on Friday and reviewed by the Associated Press, Hegseth also instructed military leaders and commanders at the Pentagon to review their libraries and remove all books concerning DEI issues.
The document reportedly stated that educational materials in libraries “promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department’s core mission” and that military leaders must “promptly identify” books that do not align with that mission and sequester them by May 21.
These reforms are part of a larger campaign by the Trump administration to eliminate DEI-related programs and content from the military, including books in military libraries and instruction on gender ideology.
Soon after taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order titled ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness’, which forbade any race- or sex-based preferences in the armed forces. That order similarly mandated that all military personnel decisions, including recruitment and promotions, adhere to a merit-based system.
The directive also completely banned transgender individuals from serving in the US military and directed the Department of Defense to identify and dismiss all service members with a history of gender dysphoria. Last week, the US Supreme Court upheld the president’s ban.
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