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On Monday, President Trump announced via Truth Social that he would be appointing U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors. Tuberville was appointed to the board alongside retired Air Force Colonel Doug Nikolai, motivational speaker Dan Clark, far-right commentator Charlie Kirk and former Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell.
“The [Air Force Academy Board of Visitors] inquires into the morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other matters relating to the Academy which the Board decides to consider,” according to the Air Force Academy’s official website.
“Our Military Service Academies should be building LEADERS for the greatest fighting force on earth…not ‘social justice warriors.’ I’m honored to be part of helping to restore that mission. Thank you, Mr. President!” Tuberville said in response to the appointment.
This appointment marks the next step in Tuberville’s storied, if controversial, relationship with veterans and the armed forces community.
In 2021, Tuberville was appointed to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and earlier this year he was named the chairman of the Subcommittee on Personnel. The senator also serves on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs committee.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Tuberville blocked hundreds of military promotions in protest of then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s policy providing pregnant service members leave and reimbursement of travel costs to obtain legal abortions in the wake of the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
Among the confirmations blocked by Tuberville was that of a new Marine Corps commandant, which left the Corps without a leader for the first time in over a century. Tuberville’s actions also affected military appointments in Alabama, including military commands at Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal.
Ultimately, the Senate was able to work around Tuberville and pass the majority of its military confirmations and promotions. Still, Tuberville was heavily criticized by both military personnel and his Republican colleagues for his actions. In 2023, the secretaries for the Army, Navy and Air Force publicly decried Tuberville’s hold on confirmations as harming the military and creating a “national security risk.”
At the time, Army Staff Sgt. Zej Moczydlowski also wrote a scathing article in the Military Times criticizing Tuberville’s behavior as being indicative of someone who does not actually care about veterans, the military or national security.
“On his website, Tuberville claims that his father instilled in him the value of patriotism,” Moczydlowski wrote. “He purports to be an ally to service members and claims to support veterans. However, he also appears willing to trade service member health and safety, as well as national security, for a chance to grandstand and curry favor with conservative voters who would ban transgender service members and strip women in service from being able to travel for reproductive care.”
Tuberville was also a staunch supporter of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during his confirmation hearings earlier this year, despite Hegseth’s apparent lack of qualifications, allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual assault, and belief that women should not serve in combat roles. Pentagon officials also criticized Hegseth as being generally unfit to head the Department of Defense.
Just this week, Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would be cutting around 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs as part of the mission to slash federal spending under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — a mission which Tuberville has publicly celebrated.
As a member of the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors, Tuberville will serve alongside the five other appointees selected by President Trump, as well as eight members appointed by the minority and majority leaders in the House and Senate and the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
