American Secretary of War Peter Hegseth announced today that military personnel will be prohibited from attending top universities such as Princeton University and Columbia University for the 2026–27 academic year, calling these schools "factories that produce anti-American sentiment" and promoting "woke ideology and weakness." "We will never, under any circumstances, send our most outstanding officers and senior officers to these graduate programs—those programs are undermining the core values that these officers have sworn to defend."

Comments: Hegseth's ban on high-ranking military officials attending left-wing elite universities such as Princeton and Columbia is seen by right-wing conservatives as finally taking a stand against the long-standing "woke ideology" eroding the military. According to right-wing conservatives represented by Trump and Hegseth, these top universities have already been taken over by left-wing ideologies, filled with criticism of American history, institutions, and national interests, promoting ideas of multiculturalism, identity politics, and weakening national sovereignty, which are incompatible with the nation-first, discipline, responsibility, and strength that soldiers swear to defend. Sending officers to study in such environments is akin to indoctrinating them with anti-American and self-denigrating thoughts, weakening the army's morale and cohesion. They believe that the military should not be held hostage by political correctness on campuses and must cut ties with academic environments that deconstruct the nation and weaken its strength.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1858343399189513/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.