Conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot described Trump’s move as the “perfect encapsulation of how he employs the military. It’s gimmicky and newsworthy, it prioritizes style over substance — and pushes the legal limits of presidential power.” After all, Congress is vested with the power to create or terminate government departments. But that, for Trump and MAGA Republicans, is just another inconvenient fact. In the end, the president will get his War Department.

By invoking “wokeness” to explain his decision, Trump (and Hegseth) revealed the paranoia and lies that undergird the larger MAGA and White right political project, where anyone who is not white, male-identifying or heterosexual is deemed inherently unfit for power, leadership or national belonging. Like political correctness, “wokeness” to Trump and his allies and messengers is a dehumanizing shorthand that means less-than, inferior, incompetent and weak as compared to “real Americans,” or more specifically “real men,” who are invariably white, straight and Christian.

-Max Boot in Salon.com