Pete Hegseth, a Fox News anchor turned Secretary of Defense, summoned US military leaders from around the world to present a new, “anti-woke” vision for the military – one without transgender troops, “fat” generals, or beards. Then, he closed with a prayer. It’s all part of a long-running mission to end diversity measures and push forward a Christian nationalist agenda in the US armed forces.

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In this episode:

• Ben Makuch, National Security Reporter

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Sarí el-Khalili, and Haleema Shah with Manny Panaretos, Duha Mosaad, Amy Walters, Farhan Rafid, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Kylene Kiang.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

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