Despite stating that he was ending the program, Hegseth said the department would have to execute the "minimum of WPS required by statute" and then "fight to end the program for our next budget." "GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!" he said. Trump in 2017 signed the Women, Peace and Security Act into law, directing the State, Defense and Homeland Security departments to implement it. Noem had written a version of the bill that year when was in the House representing South Dakota. She wrote in the previous Congress in 2016 that the legislation "ensures women have a seat at the table during peace negotiations through meaningful congressional oversight."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Tuesday that he had begun to shutter a Pentagon program meant to advance women’s participation in peace-building and conflict prevention, which was created by a law written by GOP lawmakers and signed by President Trump during his first term. “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the [Defense Department],” Hegseth wrote in a post on the social platform X. He said the program was “yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.” Hegseth also called WPS a “UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists,” claiming that “troops HATE it.”

Hegseth said the department would comply with the minimum requirements of the program dictated by law and lobby to fully end it in the next budget. "GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!" he added. But the message raised eyebrows as much of the rest of Trump’s administration has supported the WPS programs. Trump signed the WPS Act into law in 2017 and released a WPS strategy in 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem penned the 2017 Women, Peace and Security Act as a House member from South Dakota alongside Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Secretary of State Marco Rubio co-sponsored the legislation when he was in the Senate, and national security advisor Mike Waltz was a founding member of the WPS congressional caucus when he was in the House.