Since taking office, President Trump has made significant progress in changing America’s broken educational program. Whether it’s been his ongoing quest to screen the Department of Education or prevent “radical, anti-American ideas” in K-12 universities, the leader has demonstrated a clear commitment to ensuring quality education opportunities for the government’s children.
However, there are documented issues with a different sort of school: America’s military academies, in the context of these efforts to reform standard educational institutions.
These once-premiere military schools, which were meant to train and educate the next generation of warfighters, have been mired in some of the biggest contemporary social conflicts. Much like the U. S. armed troops under former President Joe Biden, producing ready coming service members took a back to bad fixations with communist ideologies and upholding the academies ‘ “image” among the American people.
Former West Point and Naval Academy officials explained how deep the DEI “decay” at these institutions, in an interview with The Federalist. They also described how Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can restore these once-coveted universities to their former glory, restoring meritocracy and lethality to America’s military.
” You need leaders that are going to go into those academies and prioritize the academies ‘ mission instead of protecting]their ] reputations”, former West Point instructor and retired Army Green Beret Ken Segelhorst told The Federalist.
Broken Admissions Procedures
A military school is only as good as the students it enrolls, just like with any other academic institution. But what happens when these academies make their admissions policies based on anything other than merit?
Former Naval Academy professor Bruce Fleming claimed that military institutions like the Naval Academy frequently considered factors like a candidate’s race or sex when deciding who should be admitted. In an interview with The Federalist, Fleming claimed. The former English teacher served briefly on the admissions board of the Naval Academy for 30 years. He noted how” the academy]went ] on about how it lets in the’ best’ and the ‘ brightest,'” but” as it turns out, that’s not the case”.
According to our own standards, the Naval Academy accepted less qualified applicants merely because they self-identified as non-white,” Fleming said. We have people who will defend taxpayers who come in with less qualifications and who are guaranteed to be the officers in the slots.
Fleming is no stranger to voicing concerns about the decision-making at the academy, which has included penning numerous op-eds ( including at The Federalist ) detailing what he views as problems at the school. The Naval Academy leadership, who fired Fleming in 2018 after accusations of classroom impropriety by a number of students, has criticized him and expressed his disapproval.
After a U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board judge found” credibility issues” with one of the accusing students, the Associated Press reported, the academy reinstated him in the summer of 2019 despite not teaching him. However, Fleming told The Federalist that a panel on the Board overturned that ruling in January 2024, leading to his dismissal from the academy ( again ).
[READ: 30-year Naval Academy Teacher Details Depth Of DEI Rot In American Military Institutions ]
However, the Naval Academy has a history of considering an applicant’s “diverse” background when applying for admissions. Segelhorst, who served as a West Point assistant professor and course instructor between 2020-2022, told The Federalist that the Army school has considered such details when analyzing the applications of prospective cadets.
” It was very clear that diversity ] was a very important priority,” Segelhorst said. West Point “would highlight the efforts the admissions had been making to accept people from various favored demographics in order to accomplish their diversity goals.”
The retired Green Beret further contended that the school had an overzealous focus on athletics that seeped into the admissions process. He claimed West Point was more than willing to” see the other way” on all other issues if a candidate was an “exceptionally good athlete.” Fleming claimed a similar pattern persisted during his time at the Naval Academy.
Neither the Naval Academy nor West Point have been shy about their consideration of so-called “diversity” and other non-meritocratic factors in their respective admissions processes. Government officials fought in federal court to keep such policies in place at the academies during the Biden administration.
Students for Fair Admissions filed these court arguments as a result of lawsuits filed against the schools ( and later the Air Force Academy ). Several years ago, this same group successfully sued high-profile colleges over their use of affirmative action in admissions, which led to the U. S. Supreme Court ruling such policies in colleges unconstitutional in the summer of 2023. However, the court’s decision did not address the use of affirmative action in the military academies.
Hostile Atmosphere
It’s not just the obsession with left-wing, DEI-style politics that have been reported as issues at the academies. Segelhorst and Fleming both suggested that the school’s settings had been hostile to those who expressed opinions or questions that challenged academy policy and the “image” of the institutions.
Midshipmen were “very aware” of the Naval Academy’s support for affirmative action policies, according to Fleming in previous conversations with his students. ” They’re not dumb. They can see that some of their classmates are significantly less qualified, he said, and it irritates them.
Fleming continued, noting that he observed midshipmen frequently being pressured to remain silent when it came to venting their frustrations about these issues. The Naval Academy culture, he noted, “is one of fear”.
” Hey, you guys, what do you think?” is not the phrase used. about any particular policy or problem, Fleming said. ” As a professor, it]drove ] me wild. But because we’re not making the strongest military]we can] by having open debate, it drives me even more crazy as a taxpayer.
Segelhorst observed a similar pattern while employed at West Point. He said a lot of cadets were “very aware” and “disappointed” in the school’s admissions standards but were either too afraid to speak out due to potential retaliation from the administration or were prohibited from doing so as a result of how the school used non-disclosure agreements ( NDA ) to prevent cadets from” sharing information they]got ] on sensitive topics, like some of the transgender, DEI training“.
” All academies are focused on maintaining their reputation,” said one professor. According to Segelhorst, they will do “almost anything” to preserve the reputation and legacy of their institutions.
]READ: West Point Expels A Cadet, Fines Him$ 200K For Its Own Paperwork Error]
Back to the basics
How then can the Trump administration address these issues and restore the nation’s service institutions to glory? During the first months of Trump’s second term, a slew of executive orders and efforts have already taken aim at the pervasive DEI policies plaguing institutions. However, it can’t be eliminated overnight from decades of rot at America’s top military schools.
According to Fleming, the new administration must be clear about ending racial and sex “qualifiers” in admissions and return to evaluating applicants solely on merit, a change that appears to be taking place.
A Justice Department court filing made public late last month revealed that the Naval Academy ordered the end of its consideration of race and sex in their admissions policies in February following Trump’s executive orders restoring meritocracy to the military.
West Point referred The Federalist to the Justice Department for comment when asked about its compliance with the administration’s orders barring the use of affirmative action policies. The Air Force Academy was also subject to criticism from The Federalist about its compliance with the administration’s instructions.
In a statement to The Federalist, Justice Department spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said she is” not sure why West Point” told The Federalist to reach out to the DOJ over the matter. The Federalist was then directed to a Hegseth memo from January 29 that stated that” No DoD Component will establish sex-based, race-based, or ethnicity-based goals for organizational composition, academic admission, or career fields.”
The Air Force Academy” complies with the]president’s ] executive order and Department of Defense guidance regarding academic admission, and it has ] masked race, sex, and ethnicity data throughout the entire admissions process,” according to a representative for the organization.
The Naval Academy did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Segelhorst demanded that the Trump administration restore standards and transparency to the country’s military academies. He further advised the president and his team to make sure the boards of directors for the various schools have the right people on them and that academy staff are following the commander-in-chief’s instructions.
To “make them prestigious institutions again”, Segelhorst said, “you need the right leadership to go in, do a fair debt, and bring them back out of the state of decay]they’re in ]”.
Shawn Fleetwood is a graduate of the University of Mary Washington and a staff writer for The Federalist. He previously worked for Convention of States Action as a state content writer, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Conservative Review, RealClearPolitics, and RealClear Health. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
