ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
For years, Republicans in Congress have been trying to cut Pentagon initiatives to fight extremism in the military. Now, with a newly installed secretary of defense, the Trump administration may be poised to end antiextremism efforts entirely. WUNC's Jay Price reports.
JAY PRICE, BYLINE: Here's Pete Hegseth, the veteran and former Fox News host earlier this month in his Senate confirmation hearing.
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PETE HEGSETH: Things like focusing on extremism have created a climate inside our ranks that feel political when it hasn't ever been political. Those are the types of things that are going to change.
PRICE: Hegseth's hearing came two weeks after high-profile events involving men with military connections who appear to have been radicalized. In New Orleans, an Army veteran rammed a truck into a crowd, killing 14. And in Las Vegas, a special forces soldier detonated a Tesla truck outside a Trump hotel and killed himself. But Hegseth said extremism in the ranks isn't a serious problem and efforts to fight it are a distraction for the military.
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HEGSETH: That was a made-up boogie man to begin with.
PRICE: The antiextremism initiatives were started by President Biden's secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, in response to the January 6 insurrection. About 200 veterans and active-duty troops were among those eventually arrested. Austin ordered the entire military to stand down for reflection and formed a working group that made recommendations on fighting extremism. But activists say the efforts have had limited effects that could be stalled or reversed. Heidi Beirich is a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
HEIDI BEIRICH: I do think we've lost momentum because of the politicization of the process, meaning the Pentagon has shied away from making this a centerpiece of its efforts in the last few years.
PRICE: There's been some progress, she says, like an improved system to screen out recruits who may be affiliated with extremist groups or crime gangs. But Beirich says the Defense Department hasn't been transparent enough.
BEIRICH: The fact that those rules and regulations were put in place in those branches may have a lasting impact over time, but it's very hard to know because we don't have data. And I just don't think the next four years are going to bode well for any kind of emphasis around this issue.
PRICE: In his confirmation hearing, Hegseth cited a study commissioned by the Pentagon and released in 2023 that looked at military extremism.
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HEGSETH: A hundred extremists were identified in the ranks of 3 million.
PRICE: That study concluded extremism was no more common among service members than civilians. But the Associated Press found the study relied on outdated data and misleading analysis. Meanwhile, the Defense Department has been funding another study by a group headquartered at the University of Maryland. Its data shows the percentage of extremists with military backgrounds who commit ideologically driven crimes has doubled in recent years.
MICHAEL JENSEN: And that is true if you include or if you exclude individuals that participated in the January 6 attack. So this appears to be a growing problem.
PRICE: Michael Jensen is a senior researcher for the group. It also found military service was the strongest predictor that someone would attempt a mass-casualty attack and be successful at it.
JENSEN: Extremism in the military is a low-numbers, high-impact problem. It's not true that every member of the military is an extremist in the making or that every case of extremist crime is someone with a military background. But what we need to really focus on is the impact of even a single case.
PRICE: He says the vast majority of extremists with military ties who commit crimes are veterans, not active-duty troops. His group recommends the Pentagon improve efforts to fight extremism in the ranks and educate troops about how to avoid getting involved in extremism after they leave the service. Now, that's all up to Pete Hegseth.
For NPR News, I'm Jay Price. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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