OPINION
In the wake of Trump's assassination attempt, many are speculating on how his Secret Service detail could have possibly allowed for the glaring security lapses that allowed a man to come within inches of killing the former president. The lapses were absurd, leading many to believe this had to be a purposeful attempt on his life. No one knows at this point. However, one of the criticisms floating around the internet was the presence of several short women in the security detail who, sorry to say, looked like a Melissa McCarthy character playing a Secret Service agent straight out of a goofy buddy cop comedy like The Heat. Except this time, it was not funny.Enter Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). It turns out a Jill Biden pal, Kimberly Cheatle, is the Secret Service director, appointed in 2022. On a show yesterday, Cheatle told ABC News that the sloped roof occupied by the shooter was too steep to deploy security detail. It wasn't steep, but never mind. Security was then "secured from inside," a vantage point that failed to prevent a shooter on the roof from hitting his target. Cheatle is a diversity hire with a DEI mindset, and that DEI mindset helped set the stage for some very critical decisions that were tragic and could have been history-altering.
This type of "safety-first" thinking is one of the hallmarks of the DEI mindset. It is the same mindset that "protects" transgender children from mean parents who reject gender-affirming surgeries—because, you know, feelings. It is the same mindset that caused millions of Americans to wear masks that were never going to protect them from a virus while crushing our constitutional rights. It is the same mindset that puts military males in harm's way by putting women in combat. It is the same mindset that sacrifices the security of a former president for the comfort of agents who are hired and trained to die for a protectee.
Also coming to the surface is that Trump allegedly got the "B-team" of security that day. It accounts for the Melissa McCarthy schtick. Reportedly, many assigned to Trump's security detail were DHS temps. I don't know much about the difference in training between a DHS agent and a Secret Service agent, but I hear that the differences impacted the outcome on Saturday.
Secret Service agents are chosen and trained in particular ways to clear the venue before an event and guard their protectees during. One of the known pieces is what is called a "body bunker." A body bunker is what you see when Secret Service agents swarm the protectee, arguably to take a bullet for him. The men assigned to the task are supposed to be as big or bigger than the protectee so they can adequately shield him or her. That was not the case in some instances. DHS agents are not trained in the same way.
DEI is pervasive in the federal government, and DHS is no exception. Not only do we have a diversity hire in command at the Secret Service, but we also have one at DHS.
Sharon Wong was hired by DHS in 2023 as the executive director of strategic talent recruitment, inclusive diversity, and engagement (STRIDE). Wong believes that people who are included and "feel they have a voice"...go out and accomplish the mission for you." She allegedly shared the statement in a discussion called Government Modernization Unleashed: Workforce. Wong's diversity hire strategy includes the use of "jump teams" who meet with employees in the field and use focus groups to gauge employee morale. One can argue that employee morale might indirectly affect job performance. However, it seems the Biden administration consistently prioritizes DEI over a focus on safety in nearly every major governmental endeavor: the border, the military, the FBI—you name it.
Finally, let's look at the overarching policy that drives an agency to focus on DEI instead of being single-mindedly focused on the safety of American citizens. DHS's Inclusive Diversity (ID) Strategic Plan was conceived in 2021. It would, according to the document "Elevate the Human Experience,"—whatever the heck that means.
Angela Bailey, the DHS Human Capital Officer, states in the strategic plan that the agency is committed to "inclusive diversity as a top priority to ensure we operate as one team, one DHS in taking care of each other during these difficult times." Kumbayah, My Lord.
The strategic Homeland Security mission document is rife with phrases like "unleashing the power of our shared human spirit," "everyone deserves a chance," the need to "embed ID principles" in all facets of the organization, and "empowerment at the individual level." The inset and page below from the document seem to represent the core intention of DHS's mission accurately, whether it is the border or, now, the protection of a former president. According to the document, "DHS's inclusion index is improving," with its "DHS workforce diversity averaging 45% in the past three years, almost double the federal workforce benchmarks." I'm sorry, but a Homeland Security agency focused on diversity is not focused enough on what should be the central focus of its mission, Homeland Security.
Unfortunately, DEI has been unleashed on every nook and cranny of our federal government, thanks to Obama, the Biden Administration, and a gritless culture resulting from decades of cultural rot. I would argue that DEI distracts from the mission in almost every case, whether it is our border, military, schools, or leadership.
One of my favorite quotes came from a man I interviewed for an article I wrote. The article was about a young private in the army who was being treated poorly by the US Army. He was punished allegedly because of his political beliefs; ones that did not align with the woke policies now so prevalent. Sadly, PVT Piero Maranon-Velazco was eventually kicked out of the army. Our military lost a young, dedicated, patriotic man who was also, ironically, probably a diversity hire. He is an immigrant who escaped Peru in search of the American Dream. His politics, however, did not align with the Army's DEI policies.
Col. Jenkins' quote is a stark but realistic look at the job of an armed force. It recognizes how important it is to train our men and women to be fierce warriors who will be ready and able to limit the scope and length of war so that Americans can return to their peace-loving daily lives.
"There should be only one purpose for an armed force. That is killing people and breaking things. Everything else is noise, or it should be. There should be no discussion about diversity, no discussion about any of this DEI stuff. Let's train our forces. Let's zero your weapon. Let's throw a hand grenade. There should be no discussion about genders or multiple genders. That is what Americans pay all these big bills for. It is for a group of people to be always ready and as lethal as possible. It is used for a short period of time, and then nobody bothers us. If you're not doing that, you're wrong." ~Col. (Ret) Don Jenkins
It is often true that the things we aim for in life are the very things we get. And it isn't just the aim. Behind the aim are attitudes, belief systems, and worldviews that very much shape history-shifting outcomes. In the case of the Trump rally, a focus on DEI could have arguably helped to set the stage for the incompetence and chaos we all witnessed in real time.
One can argue that the attitudes and biases that produced DEI as a central mission were almost certainly in play as the DHS and the Secret Service prepared for the rally. And never underestimate the power of unconscious motivation when thinking about outcomes like these. In any case, the reasons for the failures may be numerous, but in the end, the lack of mission focus left a family without a father and husband, put several others in the hospital, and Trump came within a hair of losing his own life.
My father used to talk about good performance outcomes as boiling down to the "five Ps," or Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. There is no "P" in DEI.
We may never know the reason for the criminal breakdown of security at Saturday's rally. Heck, three and a half years later, we have yet to get to the bottom of January 6. There were so many hauntingly similar breakdowns of procedures in security and law enforcement at the Capitol that day. Whatever the causes were, I can almost guarantee DEI will continue to create incompetent, weak-kneed personnel who are wholly unprepared to meet the moment.
When you take your eye off the ball, you almost always miss. The simple fact is that DEI should not be the central or dominating mission in any of our agencies, let alone the ones that are supposed to keep us safe.
