Former Trump official launches scathing Veterans Day attack on Joe Biden

Donald Trump’s former secretary for Veteran Affairs has said that President Joe Biden has let down U.S. veterans after “wrecking the moral foundation of the armed forces.”

The comment comes as all branches of the armed forces have struggled to meet their recruitment targets, suggesting a growing apathy towards a career of military service. In 2023, the Army and Air Force fell short of their respective goals by around 10,000 recruits, while the Navy was under by 6,000. Since 1987, the number of active-duty personnel has fallen by 39 percent.

Speaking on right-wing British broadcaster GB News, Robert Wilkie said, when asked how Biden had let down U.S. veterans: “Well, he’s let them down in the sense that he has wrecked the moral foundation of the armed forces of the United States with his witch hunts, with the diminution of physical and mental standards dividing the armed forces into what I would call grievance categories.

“Douglas Murray has said that the Biden administration is engaged in a non-stop grievance competition that is played out in the armed forces,” Wilkie added. Murray is a right-wing British author and political commentator. Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Department of Defense via email.

“We have a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who says that his goal is to reduce the number of white pilots in the Air Force to 43 per cent,” Wilkie said, referring to Gen. Charles Brown Jr, who was appointed by Biden to the role in May 2023. Wilkie is referring to a memo signed by Brown and other military top brass recommending the U.S. Air Force Academy come up with diversity and inclusion outreach plans. Racial quotas are not used in recruiting in any U.S. military faction.

During his Senate confirmation hearing in July, Brown said the Air Force’s efforts to improve diversity are important. “All they want is a fair opportunity to perform,” he added of air force personnel. “And by providing that fair opportunity, they do not want to be advantaged or disadvantaged or discounted, based on their background.”

Citing his own experience, Wilkie said: “I am an Air Force Colonel in the reserves. I only want people who know how to fly aeroplanes. I don’t care what they look like, what colour they are.”

He said: “People don’t want to serve in a military where the civilian leadership says that the nation is an irredeemable country, that we are the oppressors.” Newsweek can find no evidence that Brown has made such claims about the U.S.

“You know, people join the armed forces traditionally in this country because there was an acceptance as there was in Great Britain that ‘we’re the good guys’, we are the people who stand up and fight for not only liberty and freedom and the right to be left alone, but we have saved the planet on numerous occasions,” Wilkie added.

His comments came before the U.S. marks Veterans Day on Saturday, November 11. It celebrates and commemorates Americans who have served in all wars, including and following the American Revolution of 1775.

Wilkie served as Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2018 to 2021 under the 45th President Donald Trump. He also served George W. Bush as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and a senior director of the National Security Council.