Nancy Mace Bashed by Right-Wingers Over Post About Citadel Graduation

As President Donald Trump moves to purge DEI and “woke” programs from all swaths of the federal government in a frenzy of executive orders and directives, his supporters are cannibalizing one of their own. 

In 1999, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college, a previously male-only institution that Mace was granted admission to after the Supreme Court ruled the school could not deny admissions to women if it wished to continue receiving federal funding. 

Mace, a virulently anti-trans lawmaker, has recently dedicated much of her time to codifying discrimination against transgender people in public spaces. Mace has introduced two pieces of legislation attempting to force gender nonconforming individuals who work in the Capitol or other federal buildings to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex. The congresswoman has made the protection of “women’s designated spaces” a rallying cry for her supporters. 

On Monday, seemingly in response to an executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military, Mace wrote on X that she “didn’t fight like hell to become the first woman to graduate from The Citadel just for some man in a miniskirt to take away that achievement.” 

“Protecting women’s accomplishments isn’t a political talking point for me — it’s personal,” she added. 

If Mace expected support from her allies on the right, she didn’t get it. The post soon became a focal point of right-wing mockery — mostly by conservative men — who accused Mace of “having invaded a male-only institution” she had no business being granted admission to.

“The lack of self-awareness is mind-boggling,” Federalist Senior Editor John Daniel Davidson wrote in response to Mace’s post. “When a society destroys sex-segregated spaces, they all get destroyed. Maybe Mace should have thought about that before she destroyed the male-only Citadel to satisfy her own ego.” 

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh wrote that Mace’s “girlboss feminism routine isn’t just cringy. It also directly undermines our argument.” 

“The Citadel was a male-only space forced by law to admit females in the name of diversity and inclusion. That is the exact argument trans-identifying males use to invade female spaces. Nancy Mace was literally a beneficiary of a DEI program. It’s a ridiculous and tone deaf thing to brag about in this moment,” he added. 

Conservative writer Mark Hemingway wrote that Mace’s graduation from the academy “wasn’t an ‘accomplishment’ — it damaged a proud historical institution,” and that “The Citadel, like all military academies, should have remained men only.” 

Sean Davis, editor in chief of The Federalist, mocked Mace for being “surprised” that transgender women would “invade female-only spaces,” given that “a key part of your personal identity is having invaded a male-only institution.” 

The response to Mace’s post is, at its core, a stark example of one of the worst kept secrets in the right’s ideology: that the crusade against transgender individuals is also a vehicle through which the right can erode anti-discrimination protections for women and other minorities. After all, many of the civil rights laws that protect trans people from discrimination — and which are now under attack — were originally crafted to combat the exclusion of women and racial minorities from social, educational, and government institutions. 

The pile on against Mace — one of the most vocal anti-”woke” lawmakers in Congress — comes shortly after the confirmation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was questioned during his confirmation hearing about past statements expressing a desire to limit women’s role within the military. A few days earlier, President Trump ended affirmative action requirements for government contractors, unraveling policies that heavily benefited women in the federal workforce. 

Mace has made a name for herself arguing for the codified discrimination of those she believes to be overstepping the bounds of their social station. She would do well to remember that in the right’s vision for America, she — and other women who wish to break barriers — are expected to remember their place, too.