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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is tapping an unabashed bigot to lead what’s being called a “cultural refresh” of the Department of Defense.
The announcement follows a pair of bombastic speeches Hegseth and Donald Trump delivered to military leaders this week, in which Hegseth raged against diversity and Trump threatened “war” on Americans he described as the “enemy within” in a speech that garnered apt comparisons to Adolf Hitler.
Anthony Tata has a documented history of racism, Islamophobia and violent extremist rhetoric, having claimed that former President Barack Obama was secretly a Muslim working on behalf of Islamic terrorists, hashtagged a tweet about journalist Don Lemon with the phrase “liberal plantation” in an unsubtle reference to slavery, and suggested that former CIA Director John Brennan either “suck on your pistol” or face public execution for purported transgressions against Trump. Tata’s history of extremist statements didn’t prevent him from being nominated — and ultimately confirmed — as the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness. During that confirmation process, he tried to walk back his earlier call for military officials to serve Trump’s political agenda or face removal.
Now, according to a Defense Department memo made public on Tuesday, it looks like Tata’s remit will expand as he leads a “cultural refresh” focused on “two complementary but distinct objectives: encourage workforce rewards and demystify the removal process.”
The memo suggests Tata will play an enhanced role in determining rewards (potentially even compensation) and firings as part of this “refresh.” Per the memo:
First, we need to incentivize and reward our top performers. Department employees are not in it for the money, but our best performers need to be appropriately recognized for their performance, including through meaningful monetary rewards. Second, managers need more guidance on how to separate underperforming employees. Complex offboarding creates cultural drag that hurts morale ... and hinders our mission.
It’s unclear at this stage what these reforms are intended to accomplish, but given the Trump administration’s approach to personnel, it bears watching. But one thing is certain: having a MAGA ideologue like Tata wielding greater control over how officials are paid or punished doesn’t inspire confidence that the military will remain immune to politicization under Trump's regime.