Donald Trump has officially been in office for barely even a week now and has already managed to send “shock waves” throughout the Pentagon as a result of his head-spinning onslaught of increasingly unsettling and downright disturbing executive orders that are leaving US officials unsure of how to even proceed, according to new reporting from Politico.
According to the new report, Trump’s recent order on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives sparked so much mass confusion within the defense industry that officials within the Pentagon were forced to issue clarification this week that they would not be halting Army deals for new weapons after even top brass was left confused and struggling to understand the newly inaugurated president’s orders.
Politico reports, “The directives sent shock waves through the Army bureaucracy. It prompted officials to ‘put a hold on all of their contracts,’ according to a congressional aide, granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions.”
Speaking with the publication, a defense industry executive explained that a pause on Army contracts would spark catastrophic effects throughout the entire industry.
“At a time when China is publicly announcing the acquisition of a million low-cost drones, for us to be essentially kneecapping ourselves at that moment, goodness gracious,” the defense industry executive told Politico. “Many of the companies in new and innovative spaces, on the bleeding edge, it’s a huge gut punch to all of those.”
On the heels of Trump’s order concerning DEI programs last week, the Army, which operates on a staggering budget of $186 billion annually, sent out an email informing recipients: “We are working with leadership to get additional direction as to the timeframe and may come back to you for impacts to your mission.”
Former Army official Becca Wasser, who now serves as a current senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the publication, “A lot of that stems from a very unclear demand signal from the U.S. government.”
Another defense official told the publication that general unease and lack of understanding surrounding Trump’s executive order, including around “big personnel changes” has served to increase the overall chaos surrounding the situation.
According to the report, it wasn’t just the US Army that was affected and thrown into chaos and confusion.
The US Air Force “also walked back decisions this week, including removing a training that mentioned the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black pilots who fought in World War II. Some Pentagon officials worried actions explicitly mentioning race could run afoul of the White House’s stance denouncing ‘woke’ diversity initiatives.”
One defense industry executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss such a sensitive matter said, “It was not communicated to us directly; it was leaked to us. We are interpolating based on memos that are government-to-government and attempting to turn that into useful information.”
Read Politico’s bombshell full report here.
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