Pete Hegseth senior adviser is pushing for Pentagon to cut ties with Scouting America

NBC ^ | April 9, 2025 | Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains

[T Ruth]

One of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisers has recommended that the Defense Department cut ties with Scouting America, known for decades as the Boy Scouts, saying it is too “woke” to support, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.

Tami Radabaugh, the deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for strategic engagement and a direct adviser to Hegseth, has been lobbying other senior officials to suspend the Pentagon’s decades-old relationship with the group, including arguing that when Hegseth was a host on Fox News, he decried Scouting America as an organization that had "lost what they stand for," the people familiar said. It is not clear where Hegseth and the people around him stand on the issue.

Though the Pentagon has not yet decided whether to cut off that relationship and whether it would be a total severing of ties or something more limited, such as Hegseth’s not being involved, Radabaugh recommended that Hegseth not participate in a video for the group because of the concern, and he has not so far, according to the people familiar with the discussions.

***

In May, when Boy Scouts of America announced it would officially change its name to Scouting America, Hegseth denounced the organization on Fox News, blaming “the left” for supposedly wanting to destroy it.

“This is an institution the left didn’t control. They didn’t want to improve it. They wanted to destroy it or dilute it into something that stood for nothing. So, five years ago, the Boy Scouts let in girls, which was basically the end of Boy Scouts,” he said at the time.

***

---

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boyscouts; bsa; foxnewsweekendhost; groomers; grooming; lgbtq; scouting; traillife

[Ann Archy]

I’d like to see the BOY SCOUTS brought back to life with NO GAYS WHATSOEVER!!!

[jeffersondem]

I approve. Scout adult leadership is no longer brave.

[Sirius Lee]

I credit the Boy Scouts with enabling the US to quickly churn out capable leaders for combat during WWII. Change my mind.

How far they have fallen.

[rlmorel]

I am fully in agreement. There should be no connection, support, or affiliation of the Boy Scouts of America with the military whatsoever.

Disgusting what has been done to the Boy Scouts of America.

[combat_boots]

The Left wants their land

[ASOC]

the Left doesn’t *want* to destroy the BSA - the Left HAS destroyed the Scouts. Did so years ago.

I know of *no* Christian Church that will have anything to do with the ‘new’ Scouts - gay as hell, the lot.

When the LDS folks - finally - cut them loose, it all but vaporized the organization the intermountain West.

[llevrok]

End it.
This is not my 1959 Cub Scouts.

[Redleg Duke]

Prudent move. As a former Life Scout and Father of an Eagle Scout, I mourn the loss of the BSA!

[bigbob]

And for years after. It was the premiere youth leadership development organization in the world.

[Vaquero]

BSA is unfortunately woke. I agree with Hegseth

[dfwgator]

You do realize that Scouting was started by Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell, and the idea was to train young boys to be scouts for the military.

Polish Scouts played a role in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

[j.havenfarm]

Enough already. You will have troops in lots of places especially liberal places where they’re gay as a parade. But that’s not all of scouting. That’s a small part of scouting. Where were the cheap shooters when scouting was being sued left and right over its refusal to admit gays? Where were they when state legislatures revived the statute of limitations so scouting could be sued for stale claims and bankrupted scouting, decades after it is future
Youth Protection, a first rate program to protect kids from molestation of the past? There are precious few programs that teach young people to be men and women of integrity, honor, and service. Changed? Yes. Diminished? I’ll admit it. Seeing of the cheap shots that are constantly slathered on it on this forum? Absolutely not

[Vigilanteman]

Have LDS friends who tell me they once sponsored one in five B.S.A. troops in the USA. Probably much higher in the Intermountain West. When the BSA insisted on gay scouts, they reluctantly agreed so long as said boys behaved themselves. A year or two later, they insisted on gay leadership and the church cut ties.

They weren't the only church to do so, just one of the larger groups.

[Huskrrrr]

I had a great Scouting experience. Young men really need BSA, now more than ever. I looked forward to receiving every issue of Boy’s Life.

[Mlheureux]

Push for Scouts proper moral actions. If not accepted, cut ties. Simple.

[MotorCityBuck]

“I had a great Scouting experience. Young men really need BSA, now more than ever. I looked forward to receiving every issue of Boy’s Life.”
Absolutely. Myself also.
I agree with Hegseths move.
Doesn’t mean it can’t be corrected and return.👍

[lodi90]

Agree. Those armchair commentators won’t think for a minute about the kids hurt by DOD withdrawing support.

[P8riot]

Eagle Scout since 1970, now I am working for Trail Life USA. TLUSA is what the scouts were when I was a scout.

[Fiji Hill]

Not my 1959 Cub Scouts either.