Ten House Republicans and Navy veterans, led by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), are demanding answers from Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro on why it chose a sailor who is a drag queen influencer on the Chinese app TikTok as one of the service’s five “Digital Ambassadors” to help with recruitment.

In a letter sent to Del Toro on Tuesday, they wrote:

We write to express our grave concerns over reports that the United States Navy recruited a drag queen to join the ‘Digital Ambassador’ program to promote Navy recruitment on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influenced app, TikTok, which was banned from official devices by the U.S. Navy in 2019.

Despite facing what a Navy spokesperson describes as, ‘the most challenging recruiting environment since the start of the all-volunteer force,’ the Biden Administration’s Department of the Navy continues to implement radical, reckless, and woke policies that deter capable recruits from volunteering to defend this Nation’s freedoms.

As Navy veterans, we understand that a woke military is a weak military.

The signatories include GOP lawmakers and Navy veterans Clyde, Eli Crane (AZ), Andy Harris (MD), Dan Crenshaw (TX), Morgan Luttrell (TX), Mike Garcia (CA), Ryan Zinke (MT), Guy Reschenthaler (PA), C. Scott Franklin (FL), and Ronny Jackson (TX).

Their letter comes in response to the Navy recently confirming that it appointed an active-duty enlisted sailor who identifies as “nonbinary” as one of its first five “Digital Ambassadors” in a pilot program that ran from October 2022 to March 2023, aimed at recruiting from new pools of applicants.

The lawmakers noted that the sailor, Joshua Kelley, who goes by the stage name “Harpy Daniels,” frequently posts videos on TikTok and Instagram accounts of himself switching from his Navy uniform to his drag queen costumes.

“Some of these alarming posts include captions such as “Hooyah, and let’s go slay,” as well as him posing half-naked accompanied by hashtags #navydragqueen’ and ‘#sailor’,” they wrote.

“As a 28-year Navy combat veteran, I’m displeased and greatly disappointed with the Navy’s decision to not only allow this individual to represent our heroic Sailors, but to promote his drag queen activities as part of the Navy’s recruiting efforts. Our servicemembers should be solely focused on maintaining the most deadly military force in the world, not dressing up in drag,” Clyde said in a statement. . . . . (read more on Breitbart)

Rep. Clyde Leads Fellow GOP Navy Veterans in Slamming Active-Duty Drag Queen “Digital Ambassador” to Boost Navy Recruitment (Press Release, 16 MAY 23)

Today, Congressman Andrew Clyde (GA-09) led 9 of his House Republican Navy veteran colleagues in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro blasting the Navy’s decision to recruit an active-duty drag queen to join its “Digital Ambassador” program to promote Navy recruitment on the Chinese Communist Party influenced app, TikTok.

Additionally, the lawmakers demand answers as to whether taxpayer dollars funded the implementation of the Navy’s “Digital Ambassador” program, as well as how the Navy plans to address its recruitment and retention crisis.

The lawmakers condemn the Navy’s promotion of the active-duty drag queen while the Department faces serious recruitment and retention problems:

“The Navy’s inclusion of a drag queen in its ‘Digital Ambassadors’ program is another radical example of the U.S. Navy advancing woke policies to the detriment of our country’s national security.”

“The military’s current recruiting and retention crisis is dire, as evidenced by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti’s April 19, 2023 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, which claimed that the Navy is projected to be short of its Fiscal Year 2023 goal for enlisted sailors by 8,000 recruits.”

“One thing is clear, the continued embrace of woke ideologies in our Armed Services is unsustainable, and we insist you cease any involvement with drag queens in your future recruiting efforts.”

“As a 28-year Navy combat veteran, I’m displeased and greatly disappointed with the Navy’s decision to not only allow this individual to represent our heroic Sailors, but to promote his drag queen activities as part of the Navy’s recruiting efforts,” said Clyde.

“Our servicemembers should be solely focused on maintaining the most deadly military force in the world, not dressing up in drag.”

“A woke military is a weak military, which is why it’s imperative that we rid our Armed Services of radical policies that both hinder recruiting and retention efforts and threaten our national security.”

“Furthermore, Americans deserve to know if their tax dollars were used to fund this woke nonsense. “

“I urge Secretary Del Toro to swiftly address this critical question, as well as deliver a comprehensive plan on how the Navy plans to improve its dire recruiting and retention crisis.”

Read Breitbart’s exclusive on Rep. Clyde’s letter HERE.

Full text of the letter is available HERE.

Co-signers include Representatives Eli Crane (AZ-02), Dan Crenshaw (TX-02), Scott Franklin (FL-18), Mike Garcia (CA-27), Andy Harris (MD-01), Ronny Jackson (TX-13), Morgan Luttrell (TX-08), Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14), and Ryan Zinke (MT-01).

See PDF of Letter

Dear Secretary Del Toro,

We write to express our grave concerns over reports that the United States Navy recruited a drag queen to join the “Digital Ambassador” program to promote Navy recruitment on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influenced app, TikTok, which was banned from official devices by the U.S. Navy in 2019.

Despite facing what a Navy spokesperson describes as, “the most challenging recruiting environment since the start of the all-volunteer force,” the Biden Administration’s Department of the Navy continues to implement radical, reckless, and woke policies that deter capable recruits from volunteering to defend this Nation’s freedoms.1

As Navy veterans, we understand that a woke military is a weak military.

As you know, according to reports, the U.S. Navy appointed a sailor, who self-identifies as “non-binary,” as the first of five so-called “Digital Ambassadors,” as part of a program that ran from October 2022 to March 2023, meant to expand the Navy’s recruiting horizons.

This sailor frequently posts videos on TikTok and Instagram of himself switching from his Navy uniform to his drag queen costumes. Some of these alarming posts include captions such as “Hooyah, and let’s go slay,” as well as him posing half-naked accompanied by hashtags “#navydragqueen” and “#sailor”.2

The inclusion of drag queens in the U.S. Navy’s recruiting efforts comes on the heels of many other disastrous, woke policies that have deterred capable recruits from joining our Armed Forces.

Despite an expert panel of military and civilian officials finding that the addition of transgender service members would come with substantial risks to readiness and unit cohesion3, President Biden signed Executive Order 140044, which recklessly reinstated transgender service members –jeopardizing our national security.

Furthermore, the Biden Administration’s Department of Defense has embraced the Left’s illogical gender ideology by discouraging the use of “gendered” language5, requiring soldiers to use the “barracks, bathroom, and shower facilities” of their so-called “gender identity” – regardless of whether they have undergone “gender reassignment surgery,”6 and even instructing cadets to not use the terms “mom” and “dad.”7

Additionally, the Biden Administration is pushing the Left’s transgender agenda redefining the term qualified, to enable “all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform,” while simultaneously endorsing the now-repealed unconstitutional vaccine mandate that potentially put at least 75,000 troops at risk of discharge.8

Furthermore, the Department of Defense Inspector General previously raised serious concerns in regard to the Department’s near universal denial of vaccine mandate religious exemption requests.9

Thanks to Congressional Republicans, the military vaccine mandate was repealed in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

Yet, despite the proven ineffectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine and even President Biden’s assertion last September that the pandemic is “over,” the Department of Defense and President Biden continuously defended the medical tyranny of their harmful mandate up until its repeal, putting mission readiness at risk by pushing highly trained and experienced personnel out of the military.

The Navy’s inclusion of a drag queen in its “Digital Ambassadors” program is another radical example of the U.S. Navy advancing woke policies to the detriment of our country’s national security.

The military’s current recruiting and retention crisis is dire, as evidenced by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti’s April 19, 2023 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, which claimed that the Navy is projected to be short of its Fiscal Year 2023 goal for enlisted sailors by 8,000 recruits.10

One thing is clear, the continued embrace of woke ideologies in our Armed Services is unsustainable, and we insist you cease any involvement with drag queens in your future recruiting efforts.

Additionally, to conduct proper oversight into the military’s current recruiting problems, as Members of Congress, we request your full and complete responses to the questions asked below no later than June 6, 2023. Please provide an individual response to each question instead of a narrative response.

1. Provide us with all documents and communications between or among employees or agents of the Department of Navy referring or relating to Fiscal Year 2023 recruiting goals, Fiscal Year 2023 final recruitment numbers, the Navy Digital Ambassador Program, and the inclusion of the referenced drag queen as a Navy Digital Ambassador.

2. Provide us an accounting of all taxpayer funds spent in the implementation of the Navy’s “Digital Ambassador” Program.

3. Do you attribute the promotion of Executive Order 140004 as contributing to the failure of the U.S. Navy to meet its FY2023 Recruiting Goals? If so, to what extent?

4. What actions are being taken to combat the military’s current recruiting problem by ridding the military of the dangerous and divisive ideologies outlined in the letter above?

5. What other actions are being taken to combat the military’s current recruiting crisis?

6. With the significant shortfall in military recruiting, do you currently believe the U.S. Navy is operationally ready for the potential geopolitical challenges that lie ahead with respect to China and Taiwan?

/ Signed /

1 Navy Confirms Using Drag Queen Influencer as a ‘Digital Ambassador’ to Attract Recruits, Breitbart, March 3, 2023.

2 https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClCNuWJjy-o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link and https://www.instagram.com/p/CcvSr7Kudhr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

3 Memorandum for the President, Subject: Military Service by Transgender Individuals, February 22, 2018.

4 Executive Order 14004, “Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform,” January 15, 2021.

5 U.S. Forces Ordered to Stop Using Gender Pronouns to Improve ‘Lethality’, August 31, 2022, The Washington Free Beacon

6 Policy on the Military Service of Transgender Soldiers Training Module, Tier 3: Units and Soldiers, September 16, 2016.

7 Air Force Academy diversity training tells cadets to use words that ‘include all genders,’ drop ‘mom and dad,’ September 22, 2022, Fox News Digital

8 Coronavirus: DOD Response, U.S. Department of Defense. Shows total fully vaccinated service members at 2,000,195, as of December 2022.

2021 Demographics Profile of the Military Community, U.S. Department of Defense. Shows total military personnel at 2,129,656 in 2021 – for a difference of over 125,000 non fully-vaccinated military personnel.

9 Members of Congress demand answers from Austin over ‘blanket denial’ of religious vaccine accommodations, September 19, 2022, Fox News

10 Statement of Admiral Lisa M. Franchetti, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Readiness, PB-24 Joint Readiness Posture Hearing, April 19, 2023.