The Trump administration has released a new Marine Corps recruitment ad, highlighting the administration's vision of a strong military based on excellence without diversity, equity, and inclusion quotas.
Speaking at the base on March 26, Vance celebrated the elimination of diversity quotas in the U.S. military under President Donald Trump, standards that were imposed under the previous administration.
"No more quotas, no more ridiculous mumbo jumbo, no more diversity trainings," he said. "We believe the real strength and the real diversity in the United States Marine Corps is that you all come from every walk of life, come from every corner of America, and you have got the strength and the purpose to win the nation’s wars."
Vance served in the Marine Corps as a combat correspondent, including a deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“I expect all leaders to take an aggressive approach to embed diversity and inclusion practices into the core of our military culture,” then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said at the time. “We must not accept—and must intentionally and proactively remove—any barriers to an inclusive and diverse force and equitable treatment of every service member.”
The Trump administration, by contrast, has maintained that DEI is distracting the military from its primary task of keeping Americans safe from foreign enemies.
The Trump administration has shifted its military focus on physical and mental capacity requirements of military service like physical and mental health and unit cohesion.