The Pentagon says it is reviewing where top military officials can publicly speak as part of a growing move to allow only venues that align with the views of the Trump administration, which could affect attendance at annual military conferences.
The announcement comes just more than a week after the Pentagon pulled a host of top military officials from attending a major security conference in Aspen, Colorado, claiming the event promoted the “evil of globalism” and hatred of President Donald Trump.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office on Friday did not say whether the review could mean the end of officials attending annual military-run conferences such as the Navy’s Sea Air Space and the Surface Navy Association Symposium; the Marine Corps’ Modern Day Marine; and the Army’s Association of the United States Army, or AUSA.
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“In order to ensure the Department of Defense is not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums and events that run counter to the values of this administration, the department’s Office of Public Affairs will be conducting a thorough vetting of every event where defense officials are invited to participate,” top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Military.com in a statement.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson was more direct in a social media post Thursday, saying that “going forward, no DoD official will attend events by ‘America last’ organizations that promote globalism and hate [Trump].”
After the decision to pull out of the Aspen Security Forum, Wilson said that the Pentagon would “no longer be participating in an event that promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the president of the United States.”
The program for the Aspen event included Navy Secretary John Phelan; Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; Gen. Bryan Fenton, head of U.S. Special Operations Command; and Lt. Gen. John Brennan, deputy commander of U.S. Africa Command.
The ultimate scope of any changes to attendance at events is still unknown. One defense official noted that Parnell and other leaders at the Pentagon were still developing the actual guidance and policy on how event appearances will be assessed and what criteria would be used.
Multiple officials who spoke with Military.com on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about the new policy said that they didn’t know who would be in charge of deciding whether a military official would be allowed to go to a conference or not.
One service-level official expressed frustration at the lack of details and documentation on yet another policy change coming from Hegseth’s office. The official noted that they found out about the change through Politico, which first reported the story, and not official channels.
The official also said their service already has a long-standing policy of vetting engagements for top officers and civilian officials that included legal and ethics reviews, as well as input from public affairs and the defense secretary’s office.
Without formal paperwork, the official said they were unclear on what the review from the secretary’s office would add to the process or whether it would affect just military officers or civilians as well.
The new policy has also proven to be unpopular among some conservatives.
The Washington Examiner, a conservative political news outlet, called the new policy “a war on thought” in an article published Friday.
Wilson’s deputy, Joel Valdez, shot back on social media, arguing that the appearances — many of which are before various think tanks specializing in national security or foreign affairs — have no value.
“There isn’t a lot of ‘thinking’ going on at these think tanks,” Valdez argued in a post Friday. “It’s just a bunch of ‘America last’ globalists foaming at the mouth.”
The Anti-Defamation League has said that the word “globalist” — a term that is being used with greater regularity by officials like Wilson and Valdez — is frequently used “as an antisemitic dog whistle” and can be wielded “as a codeword for Jews or as a pejorative term for people whose interests in international commerce or finance ostensibly make them disloyal to the country in which they live.”
Wilson has a yearslong history of making posts on her personal social media account that allude to or flat out referenced a variety of extremist rhetoric, ranging from white nationalist talking points to antisemitic conspiracy theories.
While military officials will now be under greater scrutiny, Hegseth recently took the unusual step of appearing at a political Turning Point USA rally two weeks ago. Typically, defense secretaries take steps to avoid appearing openly partisan in an effort to preserve the nonpartisan nature of the military.
Turning Point USA is an influential right-wing nonprofit organization run by Charlie Kirk, himself a key figure in the world of Trump and Republican politics.
Speaking to a crowd at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Hegseth claimed that “we don’t do politics” at the Defense Department, while also saying that NATO was “freeloading off of America.”
Related: Pentagon Pulls Top Officers from Colorado Security Conference, Claiming It Promotes ‘Evil of Globalism’
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