President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Air Force chief of staff is a nearly-retired general with a public history of pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and COVID vaccine mandates on service members, Breitbart News has learned.
Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, a decorated fighter pilot who most recently served as leader of the Air Combat Command, held his retirement ceremony in August before being tapped by Trump to replace the force’s outgoing top officer, USA Today reported this week
“I’m deeply honored by the nomination to serve as the next Air Force Chief of Staff,” Wilsbach said in a Tuesday statement. “The trust and confidence placed in me is not something I take lightly.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee and the full U.S. Senate will need to vote to confirm the nomination before he can become the Air Force’s chief of staff.
“If confirmed, I intend to strengthen our warrior ethos and to build a more lethal force that is always ready to defend our homeland and deter our adversaries around the world,” the nominee continued. “Cindy and I have always prioritized the needs of our Airmen and their families, and we remain committed to advocating for them in this position.”
His wife, Cynthia “Cindy” Wilsbach, has worked in both of Trump’s administrations on his White House communications team, USA Today noted.
While Air Force Sec. Troy Meink said he is “pleased to support” Wilsbach’s nomination, some former service members have pointed out his track record of denying religious exemptions for the COVID vaccine mandate and recording videos promoting DEI as a priority in the military.
Air Force Master Sgt. Nick Kupper was one of the thousands of service members who were forced to retire after a 19-year career after being denied a religious exemption himself in 2022, Breitbart News reported.
“This is who General Wilsbach is, a man who enforces unlawful orders & purges Christian conservatives from our military,” Kupper, who is now a Republican state representative in Arizona, wrote in an X post addressing War Sec. Pete Hegseth.
“You want to clear DEI from the force @SecWar? This man is a DEI warrior, do not make him CSAF!” he added, along with a copy of a vaccine exemption denial Wilsbach wrote to a service member in 2022.
During Wilsbach’s time as commander of the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), he was featured in a video called “Dialogue on Race” following the death of George Floyd in 2020:
“As a team, we will ensure that diversity and inclusion is a reality at PACAF, and we’re counting on you to join in this endeavor,” he said to the camera.
The Daily Caller linked to the original upload of the video on PACAF’s X account earlier this week, but the post has since been taken down.
Wilsbach also wrote in a 2021 article for PACAF, “When I took command, I laid out four priorities – diversity, readiness, innovation, and lethality – to focus our efforts.”
U.S. Marine Corp veteran and Center for Renewing America researcher Wade Miller also tagged Hegseth in a social media post warning him of the nominee’s record:
“This should not happen. Hopefully @PeteHegseth is made aware of how woke this guy is,” he wrote on X.
“Chief proponents of DEI should not also be Chief of Staff of the Air Force,” wrote William Thibeau, Army Ranger veteran and director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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