After threatening to sever ties with Scouting America and kick the youth group off navy bases worldwide, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday gave a six-month reprieve to the group previously often called the Boy Scouts of America.
Hegseth made the announcement in a video posted to X, framing it as an ultimatum to Scouting to adapt to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI agenda. He detailed his many criticisms of the group, saying Scouts had “misplaced their method” by altering the group’s identify and “watering down” what he known as “the give attention to God because the ruler of the universe.”
He accused the Scouts of selling “an insidious, radical, woke ideology that’s anti-America and anti-American.”
The Division of Conflict has formally put Scouting America on discover.
It’s time to get again to fundamentals — and DoW is main the cost. pic.twitter.com/EnY9mvaFLX
— Secretary of Conflict Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026
Hegseth additionally made clear he thinks the group ought to return to being solely male. “ Ideally, I imagine the Boy Scouts ought to return to being the Boy Scouts as initially based, a bunch that develops boys into males,” he stated. “Possibly sometime.”
The Pentagon’s promise to reevaluate its relationship with Scouting in six months was nonetheless a retreat of kinds for Hegseth. At this time’s announcement got here after phrase of Hegseth’s plans to shun Scouting sparked weeks of backlash, together with from some Republicans. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska has stated of Hegseth’s plans: “I’ve heard quite a lot of dumb stuff, however that is up there.”
In a gathering with Scouting officers in January, Hegseth had demanded that the group change its identify again to Boy Scouts and take away some 200,000 younger women from its membership.
“ I knew within the assembly that my board, my group, was not gonna make these modifications,” Scouting America CEO Roger Krone stated in an interview with NPR.
Krone defined that the group considers together with women to be a service to households.
“ Once I was a youth, we left elements of the household within the parking zone on Friday evening after we went tenting,” Krone stated. “Lengthy earlier than I got here again to Scouting, our board made a number of selections, by a vote of our nationwide council, that we have been gonna serve the complete household.”
Per week after the Pentagon assembly, Scouting officers despatched a letter to Hegseth outlining proposed concessions. Whereas they would not change the identify or kick out women, they might drop a Citizenship in Society advantage badge that promoted range and had been instituted after the killing of George Floyd. They’d additionally add a Navy Service advantage badge, waive membership charges for navy households and provide a public rededication “of obligation to God, obligation to nation, and repair.”
Even after the concessions, which Scouting officers stated they deliberate to implement regardless, a spokesman informed NPR the group anticipated an announcement from the Pentagon severing ties was imminent. However after NPR reported on the rift, Krone stated Scouting’s members and alumni began lobbying towards breaking the century-old partnership.
Hegseth has for years criticized Scouting for allegedly caving to progressive politics. He repeated the declare Friday. “Scouting grew to become a company that now not supported and celebrated boys,” Hegseth stated. “They even welcomed the harmful fantasy of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership.”
The Secretary additionally highlighted one other concession. “Scouting America will modify its coverage to clarify that membership will likely be based mostly solely on organic intercourse at start and never gender id,” he stated. “That signifies that the appliance, any utility, may have solely two intercourse designations, female and male, and the appliance should match the applicant’s start certificates.”
Krone famous that the Scouting utility already has solely two intercourse designations. “ Tomorrow it is going to be the identical utility that we had yesterday,” he stated. “We ask for that data so we will function our items in a method that ensures that our children are secure and are safeguarded.”
Within the wake of sexual abuse allegations that resulted in a $2.46 billion sufferer compensation fund, Krone says Scouting has applied stringent insurance policies. Together with different practices, he stated they ask for gender data “ in order that we all know from a tenting standpoint and from a toilet standpoint how you can run our applications.”
Severing ties with Scouts would have meant banning scouts from assembly on navy bases, withdrawing navy medical and logistical help to the quadrennial Scout Jamboree and eliminating this system that permits Eagle Scouts to enlist at superior rank and pay.
As reported by NPR, the Pentagon had gone as far as to coordinate with the heads of the completely different branches on what a separation may imply. The Pentagon circulated a draft notification internally meant for the congressional Armed Providers Committees, justifying the withdrawal of navy help for the Jamboree. The memo, reviewed by NPR, claimed that offering medical and logistical assist to the campout, scheduled for July, would threaten nationwide safety.
With this six-month trial interval, base entry for Scout troops will proceed and Jamboree help is transferring ahead for now, together with recruitment coordination. As Hegseth identified on X, many boy Scouts have grow to be high-ranking navy officers, or have served the nation in different methods.
“Six Boy Scouts have been elected president of the USA,” Hegseth stated. “Eleven of the 12 Males to stroll on the Moon [were] boy Scouts.”
