KJS DC 4.26

“The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap,” Hegseth posted on X. “We do training and warfighting.”

That was his official position. On the record. Loud.

Here is what was happening simultaneously, also on the record: a new flood wall was rising at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. A low-lying Air Force runway was being elevated in Virginia. Projects were underway to reduce wildfire risk at military sites in Hawaii. At Tyndall Air Force Base — devastated by a Category 5 hurricane in 2018 — major resilience construction was actively underway.

Hegseth issued a memo banning all climate planning. Days later, the Pentagon’s guidance on master planning for bases was updated. In the older version, the word “climate” appeared 54 times. It doesn’t appear once in the new version — which still directs planners to identify and mitigate risks from extreme weather.

They literally removed the word. Kept the work. Hoped no one would notice.

This is not cognitive dissonance. This is a man so captured by political performance that his own institution cannot follow his orders without endangering billions of dollars of military infrastructure and the lives of the troops he claims to love. “I think it puts our troops at risk,” said the director of the Center for Climate and Security. “We’re going to be less prepared if our troops are deployed somewhere where it’s incredibly hot and their equipment doesn’t work right. That’s malpractice.”

The Pentagon’s 2026 budget request cuts $1.6 billion in “wasteful” climate spending while simultaneously spending money to protect bases from the exact consequences of the phenomenon it refuses to name.

We are in week six of a war. Thirteen service members are dead. The Army Chief of Staff was fired. Six articles of impeachment were introduced this week.

And the Secretary of Defense is playing word games with hurricane preparedness.

This is not ideology. This is incompetence with consequences.