West Point Professor Resigns Over Trump Admin Changes To Military Curriculum

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has responded to a West Point professor who announced he is resigning in protest over changes he and President Donald Trump are making to the U.S. military and its service academies.

Since taking office, Trump has vowed to depoliticize the services by removing existing materials regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) curriculum and training, and other so-called “woke” training, none of which is sitting well with philosophy professor Graham Parsons, a tenured instructor who has taught at West Point for 13 years.

In an essay published by The New York Times, Parsons wrote that he is “ashamed to be associated” with West Point now that Hegseth is overhauling the curriculum to become much more focused on lethality in combat and winning the country’s wars.

“I cannot tolerate these changes, which prevent me from doing my job responsibly,” Parsons wrote, blaming new policies from the Trump administration that prohibited classes on subjects related to diversity, equity and inclusion, critical race theory, and gender ideology, the Washington Times reported.

Hegseth took to the X platform to respond: “You will not be missed, Professor Parsons.”

You will not be missed Professor Parsons. https://t.co/8YcNcN78q6

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) May 8, 2025

Parsons said his troubles began shortly after President Trump was sworn in for his second term. He claimed that West Point officials pressured him to retract an article he had written for the national security blog Lawfare, which focused on the military’s duty to maintain political neutrality.

“The administrators did not find fault with the article but said they were worried that it might be provocative in the incoming administration. Reluctantly, I complied,” he wrote in the NY Times.

Thursday’s column wasn’t Parsons’ first for The New York Times. In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, he authored a piece suggesting that military leaders could have a duty to refuse certain orders—even if not explicitly illegal. He pointed to scenarios such as using military force to disperse political protesters or deploying troops to patrol urban areas, arguing that such actions could infringe on the due process rights of individuals in those communities.

“If the president orders the military to take actions that jeopardize its neutrality, the military is ethically justified in criticizing and even resisting that order even if it is not clearly illegal,” he wrote.

“Political neutrality exists to solve a second problem as well — ensuring that the military is subordinate to legitimate democratic authority, not to, say, a tyrant,” he added without defining what he considered to be “legitimate democratic authority.”

Meanwhile, Trump on Friday signed an executive order creating a national center for homeless veterans, using funds reallocated from programs previously directed toward services for illegal immigrants, Fox News Digital reported.

The order instructs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence on the VA campus in West Los Angeles.

According to the White House, Los Angeles is home to roughly 3,000 homeless veterans—more than any other city in the nation—representing about 10% of the total homeless veteran population in the United States.

“The new National Center for Warrior Independence will help them and other veterans like them rebuild their lives,” the White House said. The new facility will also allow vets from around the country to come there to seek and receive care, benefits, and services “to which they are entitled.”

The order reallocates funds intended for housing or services for illegal immigrants to the construction, establishment, and maintenance of the new center, Fox reported, citing the White House.

“The Center will promote self-sufficiency through housing, substance abuse treatment, and support for productive work for the veterans housed there,” the White House explained.

The objective is to house up to 6,000 homeless vets in the center by 2028, Trump’s final year in office.