The Biden administration is struggling with military readiness and recruitment because it put "political fads" and woke ideology ahead of the "mission" of defending Americans, Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis told Newsmax.
"For the first time in my life, I have veterans coming up to me all the time, saying 'You know, I don't know that I want my kid or grandkid to join today's military," DeSantis, a U.S. Navy and Iraq War veteran, said Thursday on "The Chris Salcedo Show."
"It's become a petri dish for social experimentation. They're putting political fads over military readiness.
"Moral is in the tank. Recruiting is at a generational low because people want to join a military that's mission focused. They don't want to join the military to be a cog in an overall social experiment."
DeSantis, who has been a conservative crusader against woke ideology in Florida as he geared up for his 2024 presidential run, vows to "rip the woke out on Day One."
"China is very clearly a threat to us," DeSantis warned. "Biden has been very weak on China. Obviously, he's had financial dealings his family has had with them, so they're being very, very weak with respect to China."
Fixing the "culture" of the U.S. military that has been broken by the ideologues of the Biden administration is "a Day One issue," DeSantis continued.
"I would like to do more with our military to be able to combat China in the Pacific because I think we can deter them; however, you can't pour more resources into it until you fix the underlying culture," he said.
"There's going to be major changes in all the armed services when I become president."
Ultimately, America's fighting force has to be ready to rally to defend America against the ever-dangerous world, and eliminating woke ideology is step one in the process, DeSantis vowed.
"I can tell you this: Veterans around the country are going to rally to that, and you're going to see people more willing to sign up for the military as a result of getting us focused back to the basics," he said.
DeSantis would be the first U.S. war veteran to serve as president since former President George H.W. Bush, who left office in January 1993.
"Serving alongside of a lot of great patriots, wearing the cloth of your country, is something that's very meaningful to me, and I know for other veterans," DeSantis said.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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