Buck Brief - Trump's Pentagon is Nuking Wokeness with Gabrielle Cuccia

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Buck Brief - Trump's Pentagon is Nuking Wokeness with Gabrielle Cuccia
Release Date: March 14, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve into the recent transformative changes within the Pentagon under former President Donald Trump's administration. They are joined by Gabrielle Cuccia, the Pentagon Correspondent for One American News, who provides insider insights into the Department of Defense's (DoD) initiatives aimed at eliminating what they term "wokeness" and refocusing on core military operations.

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Pentagon Initiatives Under Trump's Administration

Gabrielle Cuccia begins by highlighting the unprecedented transparency of the Trump administration concerning DoD directives. She notes that while Trump's executive orders and directives often grab media headlines, the real operational changes are meticulously executed at the Pentagon level.

"This is an insanely transparent administration," Cuccia states at [01:52], emphasizing the open communication channels between the military's public affairs officers and the press. She explains that these officers are actively engaging with all forms of media—mainstream, left, right, and independent—to ensure that the Pentagon's initiatives are clearly understood and accurately represented.

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Reforming Transgender Military Policies

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the Trump administration's policy changes regarding transgender individuals in the military. Cuccia explains that Trump's executive order made transgender militants non-deployable, effectively reversing some of the previous administration's policies.

"Historically, back in 2021, transgender soldiers were 'allowed or permissible' in the Department of Defense, but they were never deployable," Cuccia explains at [04:10]. This decision, she argues, is a course correction to ensure that military personnel are fully capable and operationally effective. She addresses the media's intense scrutiny over these changes, asserting that operational constraints such as access to necessary medications and mental health support were primary factors in making transgender soldiers non-deployable.

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DEI Initiatives and Pentagon Leadership Overhaul

The conversation shifts to the removal of senior Pentagon officials due to their involvement in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Cuccia confirms that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is actively evaluating and dismissing top officials who advocated for DEI initiatives that she describes as misaligned with military operational needs.

"There are these top officials within the DoD that are being evaluated and rightfully so," Cuccia remarks at [06:22]. She criticizes the implementation of DEI policies that, in her view, undermine the military's focus on warfighting capabilities. This includes policies on personal appearance, such as allowing hair dye, highlights, and nail polish, which Cuccia argues are incompatible with operational military standards.

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Audits and Cutting Bureaucratic "Fat"

Buck Sexton inquires about the Pentagon audits led by the Department of Defense's Office of Government Ethics (DOGE). Cuccia provides an overview of these audits, explaining that their primary focus has been on eliminating DEI and climate change initiatives that she believes are unnecessary or redundant.

"The DOGE team came into the Pentagon and conducted an initial audit focusing mostly on DEI initiatives," Cuccia states at [09:28]. She notes that these audits aim to streamline operations by reallocating resources to areas directly tied to mission effectiveness, such as logistics and defense spending. This realignment is part of a broader effort to enhance the Pentagon's operational efficiency and effectiveness.

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Morale and Operational Focus Within the Pentagon

When asked about morale among Pentagon personnel amidst these sweeping changes, Cuccia responds optimistically. She emphasizes that the majority of military personnel are committed to their duties and supportive of efforts to prioritize warfighting capabilities over bureaucratic initiatives.

"The sentiments and the morale within the building is an absolute yes," Cuccia affirms at [12:40]. She highlights that service members are eager to contribute to critical missions, such as reinforcing efforts at the southern border and enhancing drone operations. The reduction in bureaucratic "fat" has, according to her, refocused the military's vast resources—approximately $900 billion in defense spending—toward more strategic and impactful endeavors.

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Conclusion

Gabrielle Cuccia’s insights shed light on the Pentagon’s strategic shift away from DEI and other non-operational initiatives towards strengthening core military functions. This realignment, under Pentagon leadership, aims to enhance operational readiness and efficiency, reflecting a broader agenda to prioritize national defense over ideological pursuits.

"Everyone is happy with it, but now it's people having to answer to direct orders that they, you know, by the signature on the contract that they put down to join the military, how to follow through with," Cuccia concludes at [12:24], underscoring the renewed focus on discipline and mission-oriented objectives within the military.

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Notable Quotes

• Gabrielle Cuccia [01:52]: "This is an insanely transparent administration."
• Gabrielle Cuccia [04:10]: "Historically, back in 2021, transgender soldiers were 'allowed or permissible' in the Department of Defense, but they were never deployable."
• Gabrielle Cuccia [06:22]: "There are these top officials within the DoD that are being evaluated and rightfully so."
• Gabrielle Cuccia [09:28]: "The DOGE team came into the Pentagon and conducted an initial audit focusing mostly on DEI initiatives."
• Gabrielle Cuccia [12:40]: "The sentiments and the morale within the building is an absolute yes."

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This episode provides a comprehensive look into the Pentagon's recent initiatives to streamline operations and focus on essential military capabilities, offering listeners a detailed understanding of the internal shifts shaping the future of the U.S. military.

Transcript

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Buck Sexton]

Be a lot of fun too. Some Bill and Ted's excellent adventure references thrown in this podcast like a daily dose of that. Minus the campfires, archery and pranking the girls. The bonafide boot camp for critical thinking. You can get in on it for free at the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Just search our names Clay and Balk. Listen and subscribe.

[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Foreign.

[Buck Sexton]

You're listening to the Buck Sexton show podcast.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Buck Sexton]

Joining us on this episode, Gabrielle Cuccia is with us. She is the PENTAGON Correspondent for One American News. She's out of D.C. paying attention to all things DOD. Gary, congratulations on the gig, by the way. I've been seeing the clips from One America News. Let let's start with this. So we got Pete Hegseth, who's an old buddy of mine from Media World, Sean Parnell, old buddy of mine from Media World. These are the Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense Parnell's undersecretary for Public affairs or communications. What are some of the top things. What are some of the initiatives underway right now in the Pentagon and for the military? Because it's not getting as much attention this week as some of the other big Trump initiatives.

[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Yeah, of course. Well, Buck, thanks for having me again. It feels really good to be at the Pentagon, especially just before I even get into the, you know, you have and when I know this isn't news for you, but you have public affairs officers from every single branch of the military and then by the comm center of which they're strategically located, to evaluate and to connect with the press on all arenas, whether it's paycom, Indocom, or you know, down in South America, wherever it may be so when we talk about the White House as it stands right now, of course, the media is just so worked up when there's directives or executive orders coming out at the Oval Office. But a lot of what Trump has done in that first term, and certainly to be seen in the second term, when you talk about Ukraine or the Gaza Strip or whatever it may be, or the southern border right now, that that's under a DoD directive, more so than it ever has been in our history. A lot of that stuff comes and boils up at the surface level of the Oval Office, but it's all happening at the Pentagon. So this is an insanely transparent administration. You have those public affairs officers there at the ready to answer any and all questions. I'll even tell you just I'm being purely hon, being in that arena and seeing all the press, whether it's mainstream, left, right, independent media, they're all talking in person. There's no closed door to any of these public affairs officers. So when you see the changes at the DoD that are incredibly positive, which I'll get into, it's wild that, you know, the military tries, you know, their best, right, to stay out of politics and focus solely on operations. And then you see some of these news networks of which we know one of the ones that we kind of absolved their, their suite that the Pentagon had given them, and they're kind of just taking that information and then, you know, course correcting it in their eyes, what they deem to be undeployable measures or bad takes by the Department of Defense, which is wild. I'd say the positive thing right now that some people are just missing, all in all, is outside of going through just the operations, is just how the military operates. We saw that President Trump put out an executive order in which transgender militants cannot be deployable. And we already knew this, which is really interesting that historically, back in 2021, transgender soldiers were quote, unquote, allowed or permissible in the Department of Defense, but they were never deployable for a few reasons, right? Like they couldn't have access in specific arenas to their medications. Especially with cov calm, you cannot have those weekly mandated or monthly mandated conversations with your mental health professional when you're going through, quote, unquote transition. So they were never utilized in ways that war fighters are typically used. So this is more of just course correcting. Hey, we have all these bodies that aren't even able bodied in the sense of war fighting. So that's a huge positive that came out of this administration. But there's been a lot of media and conversations that I've had with other outlets in which they are so hyper focused on asking the DoD to prove and show elements or studies of which shows that transgenders aren't able to serve in the military in a certain capacity. But I would just say purely on an operational level and access to medicine and whatever it may be, you can only put so much in your pack depending on what deployable arena you're entering. So that was a great, that was a first great dodge at, you know, re sending what the Biden administration had already done in inflating the DoD.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Oh yeah, that's absolutely still underway. I mean a lot of people have been blowing smoke saying that this is very a traditional from how an administration works, but not so much. There are these top officials within the DoD that are being evaluated and rightfully so. I mean even not to jump too far ahead, but you talk about the Afghan withdrawal. There's a lot of whispers in the hallways on what's going on with the Afghan withdrawal. Whether this is going to be a full on investigation or is this a review? You can see in public source, open source, that there was a review in which intelligence information was given and gathered appropriately. But the Biden administration and say Millie to be specific, looked at that and made the calls that they still did, which resulted in that terrible withdrawal in Kabul. But at the end of the day, people still need to answer to that. This administration's not taking that lightly. And I know that they're at least, I think they're going towards a direction of a pure investigation because people do need to be physically removed after that terrible withdrawal. But outside of that, too, when you talk about the DEI programs, I mean, these top officials were implementing and rolling out and saying it's okay, even though the Biden administration said these things are acceptable, it trickles down. It's top down. Right? So even if the Biden administration like what they did, they rolled out a memo in which they allowed the military to grow out their hair, have their, their beards do hair dye or highlights or even nail polish, which sounds incredibly silly, but they do. They said that those things are allowed, but on an operational level, it's absolutely not allowed in particular places where it's more of covert operations where you don't want to just signal out yourself to an adversary. So those questions need to be answered. And at this point, it's really interesting because a lot of the times with a chain of command in the military, it could be an easy answer of, well, it was directed by the President that this was allowed. But then you have to go under all of that and look at, well, operationally was this cohesive with the mission, and it's not. And a lot of times people are forgetting this culture war that we're in, that individuality is not celebrated in the military. Individuality and ability is and recognized, and those people are placed in positions pertinent to what they can and can't do. But as far as the aesthetics, I mean, in what world does that ever actually work in the military? Who's stopping for a quick second on the battlefront and going, I like those uniforms. I want to check those out. I'm not going to shoot you. Just doesn't happen. So there's a lot more turnover that's going to be placed at the Pentagon. I mean, the first, first week or two of, of Hegseth being on in there, the top commanders were removed. So there's also another element, though, too, for some commanders. There was one specific in the Navy where there was a ship crash, and for things like that, a chain of command, they're going to be removed. A lot of mainstream media was sounding the alarm again, saying that this was part of the Doge effort, but that's just traditional DoD operations.

[Buck Sexton]

If something goes wrong, are there already signs that There'll be specific DoD and Doge collaboration on things like the Pentagon audit that apparently can never be passed. I mean, what can you tell us about cutting or trimming the fat within the military industrial complex as part of all this?

[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Yeah, fair question. Well, the, the Doge team came into the Pentagon and there's. They conducted an initial audit and they're still conducting more. Now in that initial audit, they focused on mostly like, as you know, typical, those DEI initiatives to. And then, you know, kind of on that same level, the climate change initiatives in which there was a lot of pushback to where it was. Well, the DoD needs to know about the climate to be able to react. Going back into their logistics of planning and posturing themselves all across the country now, I mean, considering the southern border, but certainly globally. But this is more of a point of you cut out the fat, which is what DOGE has done with the DEI initiatives at the Pentagon specifically. Now you're parsing out these other elements of which we still have other government agencies and entities that do cross sharing with DoD liaisons that can give them that said precious climate information to relay back when it's mission pertinent. So I expect after the dei, after the climate change axing, it's going to be more on the sense of what else is already actually being conducted, especially because, you know, Buck, the DoD and the IC integrate tremendously. So that's not necessarily going to change, but it's reallocating those efforts that are already established. Looking at something like Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, there's plenty of organizations and government agencies that already fulfill these, these asks or the need for intel that are already being provided. You don't need to just completely bloat the system and have, I guess, your desk officers sitting there and doing the same reinventing of the wheel that's already been created. So I think those are the things that they're still going to be focusing on. There's a lot more clean house to do on that front. But again, it's kind of been a little bit more less emphasized considering, you know, Ukraine, Gaza, southern border, all the like.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

Do a lot of them feel like, hey, a focus on war fighting and cleaning up some of the bureaucratic mess here is a good thing or because in other places it's not right. Like USAID does not want the mess cleane. But is the Pentagon pretty, is the rank and file pretty positive about this stuff?

[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. No question about it. That's like the one, you know, that's there's so many reasons why I love focusing on DoD and IC operations and then being there in person just takes it to a whole other level. But it's because these are people that genuinely do not to sound so cliche, but they genuinely do love their country. They're still holding onto. I was in the hallway last week and I was talking to some senior military officials on the army side and they were all just recounting the very first, you know, propaganda esque, you know, join the army, first commercial they ever saw as kids. And then being there for so long, some of these 10, 20, 30 years, some of them and seeing the complete culture shift change, being bloated with people that are just again we talk about even military standards, that's going to be a huge thing that's changing and the physical fitness side and these standards were being lowered and the floodgates had opened that it wasn't this way war fighting complex that that these guys signed up for. I'll tell you, they're incredibly eager and want to be a part of the efforts at the southern border. I know Northcom and southcom announced that they're bolstering more joint efforts, especially on the drone side. And I only think that's going to continue. It is a direct conduit into the results that we've seen at the southern border being far less aggressive by the cartels because they just don't have the defense spending. They're super lucrative. Right. But the DoD has a 900 billion defense budget and that just doesn't compare. You look at China, they're sitting at, you know, 300 billion. So we're far surpassing them at this moment. And we're far more capable and have the right resources. Again, it's just cutting the fat and redirecting where the mission set is. So the sentiments and the morale within the building is an absolute. Yes. I think the other, the only heartburn that people would see when it comes to these Doge audits or say the Afghan withdrawal, from what I've heard was again, DOD follows a chain of command. So when there is intel being presented and it's not being acknowledged or chosen to be factored or digested in a different way to make poor operational decisions, it's really tough for those people that are kind of a level or 2 below that higher call to defend themselves other than saying, I listened to my, my most senior officer and that's what I decided to do. So I think that's the bigger picture. The all this cultural shift, all the mandates that are being dropped, all good, everyone's happy with it. But now it's people having to answer to direct orders that they, you know, by the signature on the contract that they put down to join the military, how to follow through with. So it'd be really interesting to see how Hexeth and his team kind of course, career course correct and make right from things like the Afghan withdrawal. Considering that they also understand the chain of command is what made everyone's, you know, hands tied to a degree.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, and Pentagon correspondent Gabriel Cuccia. Great to see you. We'll talk to you again soon about all things dod.

[Gabrielle Cuccia]

Sounds great. Thanks, Buck, for having me.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Buck Sexton]

Hey Clay, if there was a summer camp for critical thinking, we'd be the chief counselors.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Those jelly heads in June would be intellectual warriors by August.

[Buck Sexton]

Be a lot of fun too. Some Bill and Ted's excellent adventure references thrown in this podcast like a daily dose of that. Minus the campfires, archery and pranking the girls. The Bonafide boot camp for critical thinking. You can get in on it for free at the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Just search our names. Clay and Buck listen and subscribe.