President-elect Trump is expected to transform the U.S. military from the Pentagon, with promises to slash spending, thin the top ranks and roll back efforts to make the military more inclusive to transgender and women soldiers.

While Trump has not presented clear policies for the Defense Department or yet named a nominee to head the Pentagon, his allies and former administration officials have laid out a blueprint for deep change.

The plan includes controversial cultural war issues, reducing wasteful defense spending and decreasing the number of generals in the military, although it also includes less divisive measures, such as enhancing nuclear strategy, prioritizing China and building a resilient military.

The 2024 Republican platform promises that the GOP “will ensure our military is the most modern, lethal and powerful force in the world.”

“We will invest in cutting-edge research and advanced technologies, including an Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield, support our troops with higher pay,” the platform reads, and “get woke leftwing Democrats fired as soon as possible.”

Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University who studies civil-military relations, said there remains “genuine confusion” as to what Trump’s actual policy priorities will be.

“Personnel is policy, so some of the confusion will be sorted out once we know who's going where,” he said. “There are some ideological divisions within Team Trump, and we don't know which division will win in the national security space,” he said.

“There's some traditional hawks, and there's some neo-isolationist doves, and they all wrap themselves in the mantle of MAGA. And so we'll see which prevails.”

The Republican party has focused on so-called “woke” policies that they accuse the Biden administration of implementing, including efforts on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which the GOP says is harming military readiness by focusing on gender identify and race instead of strength. Democrats argue the DEI policies make the military more inclusive and therefore stronger through a diverse population that better represents America.

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