HOSTILE RECEPTION

Hegseth Booed for Anti-DEI Push at U.S. Military Base in Germany

The defense secretary angered military families and Defense School students alike because of his diversity, equity and initiative exclusion.

Crowds in Germany booed President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday during his visit to a U.S. military installation in Germany, as military families protested the current administration’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. NBC reported that the crowd roared “DEI” as about two dozen adults who live at the military base heckled Hegseth on his arrival to the U.S. European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The protest was in response to Hegseth’s recent ban of certain books in Defense Department schools, including restrictions on topics like psychology and immigration. In another form of protest against Hegseth, a group of 55 middle school students at Patch in Stuttgart held a 50-minute walkout according to a school letter obtained by the Washington Post. Since his confirmation, Hegseth has successfully banned Black History Month celebrations and also announced in a memo that the U.S. military will no longer accept transgender service members.