by WorldTribune Staff, July 17, 2025 Real World News
The Defense Department has cancelled the the speaking engagement of several high-ranking military officials who were scheduled to participate in this week’s Aspen Security Forum, citing the globalist, leftist nature of the host Aspen Institute.
The Pentagon also noted that critics of commander-in-chief of President Donald Trump, such as Biden Administration National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, were speaking at the event.
“The Department of Defense has no interest in legitimizing an organization that has invited former officials who have been the architects of chaos abroad and failure at home,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Just the News.
“They are antithetical to the America First values of this administration. Senior representatives of the Department of Defense will no longer be participating in an event that promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States,” Wilson said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit this past weekend that his agency under Democrat Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden was “distracted by experiments” in left-wing ideology and that “from day one, we have declared that [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives are] dead at DoD,” calling it a “back-to-basics moment.”
Critics point out that the Aspen Institute receives funding from left-leaning donors, stacks its commissions with anti-Trump activists, and has been linked to a series of events which Republicans say contributed to the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop stories in October 2020.
U.S. military leaders who will no longer appear at the Aspen Security Forum include John Phelan, the Secretary of the Navy; Admiral Samuel Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; General Bryan Fenton, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command; General Stephen Whiting, the commander of U.S. Space Command; and General Randall Reed, the commander of U.S. Transportation Command.
Other key Defense Department leaders who had been slated to speak but who will no longer appear include Lieutenant General Jeff Kruse, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Vice Admiral Frank “Trey” Whitworth, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; David Cattler, the director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency; Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering; Doug Beck, the director of the Defense Innovation Unit at the department; and Lieutenant General John W. Brennan Jr., the deputy commander of U.S. Africa Command.
A spokesperson for Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn told Just the News that the senator – who had been slated to speak at the forum – will also no longer be attending.
Other speakers at the forum include prominent Trump critics such as Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons, Virginia Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, fired former Trump Defense Secretary and harsh Trump critic Mark Esper, former Obama DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, and former State Department official Brett McGurk, who resigned from the Trump Administration then joined the Biden Administration.
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