Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is boasting that he bullied Scouting America into altering its policies by threatening to remove DOD funding.
Hegseth posted a video on X Friday morning saying that the Pentagon would continue supporting the organization after it agreed to several “key reforms,” such as “reviewing and replacing politicized, divisive and discriminatory language throughout the organization, programs, and all publications. No more DEI. Zero.”
The Department of War has officially put Scouting America on notice. It’s time to get back to basics — and DoW is leading the charge. pic.twitter.com/EnY9mvaFLX
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026Scouting America also will also end its “citizenship in society” merit badge, which a DOD press release claims “made it mandatory for those with the rank of Life Scout to ‘realize the benefits of diversity, equity, inclusion and ethical leadership,’ prior to being allowed to advance to the rank of Eagle Scout.”
The organization will restrict itself to only allowing the sex designations male and female, and the sex noted on scouting applications has to match the applicant’s birth certificate. The organization will also introduce a military service merit badge, and will waive registration fees for the children of members of the military, whether active duty, reserve, or National Guard.
Hegseth warned that Scouting America had to stick to these commitments, and the DOD plans to “vigorously review” the organization’s progress in six months. If it finds that Scouting America hasn’t lived up to its commitments, the DOD will stop supporting the organization.
“We hope that doesn’t happen, but it could,” Hegseth said. “Ideally I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday.”
Hegseth and his fellow conservatives had lamented that Scouting America began accepting gay youth in 2013, and ended its ban on gay adult leaders in 2015. It also announced nine years ago that it would accept transgender scouts, and began accepting girls into the Cub Scouts in 2018 and Boy Scouts (renamed Scouts BSA) the next year. Over 6,000 girls have since gone on to reach the top Eagle Scout rank.
Hegseth has had the Scouts in his crosshairs for years, saying on Fox in 2024 that the organization “has been cratering itself for quite some time.”
“This is an institution the left didn’t control. They didn’t want to improve it. They wanted to destroy it or dilute it into something that stood for nothing,” Hegseth said at the time. In November, a draft memo written by Hegseth to Congress first floated the idea of ending DOD support for Scouting America. Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that it was reviewing its relationship with the organization.
Now, Hegseth has gotten Scouts to cave, at the expense of young people whose presence in the organization will be discouraged. A service organization with a strong history and reputation in the U.S. is now effectively in the Trump administration’s pocket.
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