Florida man disrupts military budget hearing to denounce "wokeism"

Oct 30 2025 Jamie Goldstein

Florida Representative, Matt Gaetz offered a heated set of choice words to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin yesterday at a House Armed Services hearing. At the center of Gaetz's argument was the accusation that "wokeism" has prevailed as a higher military priority than national defense.

Florida man disrupts military budget hearing to denounce "wokeism"

Gaetz opened his argument by referring to a National Defense University lecture on socialism, then transitioned wildly to a point about the United States military falling behind China on hypersonic weapons.

Secretary Austin, attempting to keep up with the ranting Florida man asked, “What do you mean? We’re behind in hypersonics? How do you make that assessment?”

Gaetz sharply turned back to what he asserted was the Pentagon’s strategic shortcomings: “While everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic, we’ve got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training,” Gaetz said.

The Florida man also took shots at the Pentagon’s methods leading up to Russia’s invassion of Ukraine. “You guys said that Russia would overrun Ukraine in 36 days. You said that the Taliban would be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls.” Gaetz added, “maybe we would be better at them if the National Defense University actually worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism.”

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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin provide testimony at the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the fiscal 2023 defense budget. (DoD Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force TSgt. Jack Sanders)

Austin challenged Gaetz, “Has it occurred to you that Russia has not overrun Ukraine because of what we’ve done and our allies have done? Have you ever even thought about that?”

Pedo-Gaetz

Matt Gaetz, is currently under investigation by the Justice Department following accusations that he may have had sex with a minor and trafficked the 17 year old girl across state lines.

There are a number of federal statutes which make it a crime to compensate a minor financially or tangibly for crossing state lines in order to have sexual relations. These kinds of hearings are unfortunately common for the Justice Department, but they typically see great success in seeking heavy sentences for those convicted.

At this point, Matt Gaetz has not been charged.