Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is making a major move in his ongoing culture war, threatening to cut off tuition assistance for service members attending dozens of top colleges and universities that he believes are biased against the armed forces, as reported by The Hill. This decision has sent shockwaves through both the military and academic communities, who are worried about potentially closing off a vital path for future officers.
The Pentagon’s decision to cut all academic ties with Harvard University, starting in the 2026/2027 school year, was the first sign of this new direction. Hegseth announced this in a video message last week, calling Harvard “one of the red-hot centers of hate-America activism.” He had a long list of complaints about the university, claiming without evidence that “too many faculty members openly loathe our military” and portray the armed forces negatively, while also trying to silence anyone who challenges their “leftist political leanings.”
Hegseth, who served as a major in the Army National Guard, stated, “For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class.” He then added, “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard, heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.” He concluded, “We train warriors, not wokesters. Harvard, good riddance.”
Hegseth even publicly wrote “Return to sender” on his Harvard diploma during a 2022 television segment
Following this announcement, Hegseth signed a memo last week that ordered all military branches to evaluate existing graduate programs for active-duty members at top-tier institutions and any other civilian universities that “similarly diminish critical thinking and have significant adversary involvement.”
This evaluation is now underway, with branches compiling lists of schools where service members might soon lose Pentagon tuition assistance. For example, a preliminary Army list includes 34 law schools marked as “moderate to high risk” of being banned. Similarly, the Pentagon sent an ultimatum to tech companies to keep their ethics at bay.
It’s pretty wild to see that many of the targeted schools are places where top administration officials, including Hegseth himself, got their degrees. President Trump often talks about his degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Vice President Vance earned his law degree from Yale University, and Hegseth attended both Princeton University and Harvard.
Many experts are calling this move incredibly short-sighted. Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown law professor and former Pentagon adviser, said it’s “stunningly short-sighted of Hegseth, on multiple levels.” She added, “Cutting off their access to the best universities in the country is just plain dumb, and suggests Hegseth thinks officers can’t be trusted to bring any critical thinking to their classes and academic work, distinguishing between opinion and fact.”
National security experts are worried that this decision will politicize military education and limit future military leaders’ exposure to diverse perspectives. Kori Schake, a senior fellow, described Hegseth as an “amplifier of the president’s personal vendettas,” saying his efforts are designed to punish universities the White House dislikes. She warned that this “sends a message of anti-intellectualism that will affect who chooses to join or remain in military service.”
Published: Feb 18, 2026 03:00 pm