President Donald Trump ordered on Monday the “immediate dismissal” of the boards of visitors for the United States service academies, including the Naval Academy, referencing “Woke Leftist Ideologues” that must be removed in order to make the military “great again.”
The dismissals, which came in a Truth Social post, would remove the members of the advisory panels overseeing academic programs and student life at the Naval, Coast Guard and Air Force academies and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“Our Service Academies have been infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years,” Trump wrote. “I have ordered the immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard.”
Board members include presidential, vice presidential and congressional appointees and feature a combination of lawmakers and military personnel.
The Naval Academy Board of Visitors includes U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a Democrat, and John S. McCain IV, the son of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Elfreth did not respond to a request for comment.
Other noteworthy members include the chairman, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire.
The Naval Academy declined to comment on the status of the board and referred questions to the White House. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump did not name any new board appointees in his post.
Former President Joe Biden also removed members of the service academy boards when he took office in 2021.
Trump’s removals come after West Point announced it was shutting down 12 cultural and gender-focused affinity groups for cadets last week in accordance with an executive order terminating all DEI programs, mandates, policies, preferences and activities in the federal government.
The Naval Academy has not announced a shutdown of any clubs but said it is committed to implementing all executive orders in alignment with the Department of Defense and the Department of the Navy. The Navy is reviewing all clubs and extracurricular activities.
“We will have the strongest Military in History, and that begins by appointing new individuals to these Boards,” Trump wrote. “We must make the Military Academies GREAT AGAIN!”
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