Tweets comparing former President Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler are not welcome at the United States Special Operations Command, which reassigned its new diversity chief following the discovery of a tweet of Trump and the Nazi leader side by side following the former president’s Lafayette Square photo-op.
SOCOM’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2021 includes a new office led by a diversity officer. The special ops command based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, called for emphasizing “interconnectedness of matters relating to culture, ethnicity, religion, class, race, and gender” and makes the case that diversity is an “operational imperative” for special operators deployed in covert missions globally. However, the first official to head the office, Richard Torres-Estrada, was quickly reassigned pending an investigation after his anti-Trump tweet was found.
“Here I leave this and slowly retire (to continue working from home),” Torres-Estrada tweeted on June 2 with a photo of Hitler holding a book next to a photo of Trump holding the bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, a photo-op he orchestrated following the controversial June 1 clearing of Lafayette Square across from the White House during protests about perceived racial injustice.
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“I’m not going to get ahead of the Special Operations Command’s investigation,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
“The Secretary was made aware by Gen. [Richard] Clarke of their investigation into these social media posts,” Kirby added, declining to pass judgment on the incident. “We certainly want that work to be transparent, to be credible, to be effective and, of course, professional.”
The announcement of Torres-Estrada’s new position came amid much fanfare from the command.
“USSOCOM welcomes our new Chief of Diversity & Inclusion, Mr. Richard Torres-Estrada. We look forward to his contribution in enhancing the capabilities and effectiveness of #SOF through diversity of talent, helping us recruit the best of the best,” the command wrote in a Thursday tweet announcing the job.
Christopher Maier, the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, made the operational case for diversity in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing the same day.
“We are all also committed to enhancing diversity within the SOF community,” he said. “As we compete against different and more capable adversaries, a more diverse force empowers us to draw upon broader perspectives, different lived experiences, and new ideas.”
Clarke said at the same testimony that the special operations forces must reflect “American diversity and values.”
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Kirby said he spoke to Clarke about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s commitment to improving diversity at the Department of Defense and that the challenge would carry on despite the setback.
“It’s apparent to us how seriously Gen. Clarke is taking this issue,” he said. “There’s no question that Special Operations Command is absolutely taking the issue of diversity and inclusion seriously.”
